On the recordMarch 5, 2010
we had a good, hard week working on this legislation dealing with the tax extenders, expiring provisions--COBRA, unemployment compensation, FMAP. So those watching don't think it is some kind of coded message, these are very important provisions. The tax extenders are measures that come at the end of the year. Many of them should be extended for much longer than a year, but we are in a mode now of paying for things, and as a result, we don't have the money to do it for more than a year. The expiring provisions are very important issues. They deal with satellite TV, which is important to about 1.5 million people in America. Many in the rural West depend on this. Unemployment compensation--today is a big day in America. Only 36,000 people lost their jobs today, which is really good. The unemployment rate around America has not changed. The prognosticators thought it would go up. It has not. So we need to extend it. There are about 15 million people in America out of work. These extended unemployment benefits will help millions of those people. We were fortunate enough earlier this week to get a 30-day extension, so that when we finish this legislation--we should finish it hopefully on Tuesday--we can go to conference with the House and quickly work out our differences. In addition to that, we talked about COBRA. That is a provision that allows people who are unemployed to buy, at a decent rate, health insurance.
