Frank Pallone: “let me first start out by saying that I am very pleased that the Republican leadership dropped the bill yesterday which…”

“let me first start out by saying that I am very pleased that the Republican leadership dropped the bill yesterday which would have complicated matters and brought up what is essentially a clean bill today on the unemployment compensation so we can get this passed and give that extra 13 weeks to our constituents. That is so important. I am pleased at the fact that they were willing to listen to Democrats and others that were asking that that be done. However, I did want to say that the issue of health care for people who are displaced, for displaced workers, is still very important and needs to be addressed. One of the concerns I have, which some of my colleagues have mentioned, which is that with the States piggybacking on this Federal depreciation rule, many of the States are now concerned that they are going to be losing significant amounts of money and that they will not be able to afford to keep everyone on their Medicaid rolls. In my home State of New Jersey, which faces like a 12 percent deficit from the previous Republican administration, our Governor is saying a big part of that is Medicaid. So we do not want to aggravate the situation, making it more difficult for States to provide health care for people who do not have a job or who are low income.”