Political Quotes

“Madam President, I rise today to join so many of my colleagues in urging that we pass critical extensions of Federal unemployment benefits, the COBRA health insurance subsidy, flood insurance, and other vital programs that expired at the end of March. I applaud my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who, despite opposition from their leadership, have joined us in moving this legislation forward. But despite the progress we seem to be making, these extensions have been held up too frequently for too long, and the American people deserve better. Sadly, twice this year individual Senators have blocked extensions of Federal unemployment benefits right as the programs were about to expire. Those actions have put struggling families at risk, and already this month over 200,000 Americans have lost their benefits, with another 30,000 losing their benefits every day until we pass an extension. What is of particular concern is that we continue to deal with filibusters and delays and obstruction, even though almost every Member of this body says they want to extend unemployment. After weeks of delay, when extensions finally come up for votes, they have passed overwhelmingly. We have had three situations now where this has occurred since last fall. In November, when the vote on extending unemployment benefits finally came to the floor, that vote was 97 to 1. In December, when the extension came to the floor, the vote was 88 to 10. In March, it was 78 to 19.…”