Political Quotes

“Mr. President, today I am introducing the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2011 to ensure that millions of unemployed Americans will not lose desperately needed unemployment benefits and to provide relief to states and employers that are facing automatic penalties for overdrawing on their unemployment insurance trust fund during the worst unemployment crisis in modern history. I am pleased to be joined by my colleagues Senators Durbin, Whitehouse and Levin. Fourteen million Americans are looking for work and the average length of unemployment is 40 weeks. Rhode Island has endured especially high and persistent rates of unemployment. If Congress fails to extend unemployment benefits or if benefits lapse for as little as a month-- 10,000 Rhode Islanders and 2 million Americans nationwide will fall through the safety-net and lose benefits. This would have far reaching impacts on families, communities, and businesses. It would seriously endanger our economic recovery as a whole. The legislation would continue funding for the Federal unemployment programs for jobless workers through 2012 by extending the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Program and making improvements to the Extended Benefits Program.…”