Don Nickles: “We passed temporary Federal unemployment compensation extension last March or April. We passed that. It was a benefit.…”

“We passed temporary Federal unemployment compensation extension last March or April. We passed that. It was a benefit. It passed overwhelmingly in the Congress. It expired on December 28. Several people said we need to extend that. Last year some people wanted to double the program from a 13-week Federal program to 26 weeks. This Senator, along with others, objected to that. The cost of that program or expansion was about $17- or $18 billion. I objected to it several times. I will object to it today. What I did agree to and what this Senate passed last year was a simple extension of present law. We agreed, Senator Clinton and myself, Senator Fitzgerald, Senator Specter, Senator Cantwell--by unanimous vote, the Senate agreed to a 3-month extension of the present program. That passed the Senate. It did not pass the House. The cost of that program was about $4.9 billion. The House had passed a program that cost a little less than $1 billion.”