Don Nickles: “Just to inform my colleague from Minnesota, that current law is a 26-week State program and a 13-week Federal program…”

“Just to inform my colleague from Minnesota, that current law is a 26-week State program and a 13-week Federal program, with some high unemployment States getting an additional 13 weeks. You are trying to modify the original 13 weeks and make it 26 weeks. That is very expensive. Just to inform my colleague, if you did not try to change the trigger, or use the adjusted insured unemployment rate which costs a lot of money, and just looked at a clean, straight extension which would cost about $7 billion instead of $17.1 billion, the probability of success would go up dramatically. I mention that. To draft a bill, put it directly on the calendar, and say we expect you to pass it without any modification, is not going to happen. I wanted to make that point. I thank my colleague from Connecticut.”