Dan Bishop: “I thank the gentleman and my fellow North Carolinian, Mr. Cawthorn, for having this Special Order. My comments will echo…”

“I thank the gentleman and my fellow North Carolinian, Mr. Cawthorn, for having this Special Order. My comments will echo his. Look, the pandemic is over. Thank goodness. Our economy should be seeing robust growth. Instead, businesses cannot fill the record number of jobs available. In fact, the number one issue that I hear, not only from business owners and managers, but from all constituents, is that folks will not come to work, businesses cannot find workers. Last month, despite 9.3 million job openings, there were only 69,000 more new hires than in the month before. How is that possible with unemployment at 6 percent? Simply put, President Biden and Democrats have insisted on continuing to pay people more to stay home than to work. Despite consistent warnings from Republicans and economists, the so- called American Rescue Plan continued expanded unemployment benefit programs enacted in the heart of the pandemic. In my home State, in North Carolina, these expanded benefits are worth $650 a week. That is about $50 more than the Progressives' preferred minimum wage of $15 an hour. You don't have to be an economist to see why small businesses can't fill job openings, and it is beyond time that Congress fix this self-inflicted wound. That is one reason that Representative Jodey Arrington and I introduced the Jump-Start the Economy with Jobs Act.…”