Paul Tonko: “Take a break, as they say. You can't have it both ways. You can't deny all these legislative bills that are advanced to…”

“Take a break, as they say. You can't have it both ways. You can't deny all these legislative bills that are advanced to the Congress or initiated by Members of the House that would speak to job growth. The President has sent forward on behalf of the administration a number of bills that would grow our economy, grow the climate to enhance job growth. You can't reject that agenda and then not reauthorize the unemployment insurance benefit package. If you are going to do that, if you are not going to reauthorize, then you need to do the jobs packages that have been sent here. But to do both, to reject the job packages-- the legislation that would grow that climate--and also reject the reauthorization of unemployment insurance, reject minimum wage, reject the SNAP programs, that is harsh. That is not being guided by a moral compass, and that is not America at her best. So I would implore with my colleagues on this floor this evening, with Representative Garamendi, Representative Horsford, I would implore the leadership of this House to pursue that agenda that provides for job creation and that speaks to economic justice and that responds with insensitive measure to those who are unemployed through no fault of their own who are actively searching for employment. We need those job-training programs. We need the assistance programs, so as to maintain the economic comeback from the recession.”