Darlene Hooley: “today I am introducing a petition to force a vote on legislation to extend unemployment benefits as a triage effort to…”

“today I am introducing a petition to force a vote on legislation to extend unemployment benefits as a triage effort to tide people over until we address the underlying problem behind high unemployment rates: the U.S. economy's job losses. This country has lost 3.2 million private sector jobs in the last 3 years. It is not that Americans are not looking for work, it is that the jobs are just not there. In addition to providing a safety net to individuals, we need to focus on creating an environment allowing the private sector to grow and create these desperately needed jobs. Not only do unemployment benefits provide a level of security to families, unemployment benefits also help stimulate our local economies. When people do not have spending power, businesses hurt. Last week 11,000 Oregonians exhausted their benefits, and that number is going to continue to grow unless this Congress acts. This deprives our State's local economy of $3 million every week in stimulus. Unemployment benefits are intended as a safety net to bridge people from one job to the next. I urge my colleagues to join me in signing this discharge petition.”