Glenn English: “American workers need help now. We know that from my district in northwestern Pennsylvania, and we know that from the…”

“American workers need help now. We know that from my district in northwestern Pennsylvania, and we know that from the experience around the country. The legislation before us brings a total of 37 billion new dollars in new benefits for unemployed workers, including 13 extra weeks of additional unemployment benefits. This is a critical initiative that we must pass now. With this bill, the House has made an effort to respond to the needs of the American worker during the current slowdown. But in doing so, we have also insisted that a stimulus package must be just that, a stimulus, that will return our struggling economy back to a growth path. The single best way to jump-start our sputtering economy today is to allow companies to quickly recapture the money that they invest in capital. We know that huge additional amounts of business capital investment are critical to restart the economy. This bill includes an expensing provision that is no corporate giveaway. It rewards companies that make concrete entrepreneurial investments. We know that productivity is spurred by investment in innovative capital equipment. The sooner manufacturers can recapture the cost of their equipment, the faster they can create and maintain good-paying jobs. Workers not only need a better safety net as provided in this bill, but they need to be able to hold on to their jobs. Yes, workers want help when they are unemployed; but more importantly they want a good-paying, stable job.”