Lloyd Doggett

SSI assists families who are dealing with a child with a disability, physical, mental or both.

On the other hand, when we have studied unemployment we have had some Members almost suggest that the main problem with unemployment is the unemployed and that they can be blamed for the situation.

And the objective that you mentioned in your opening statement of helping families deal with these great challenges that they encounter with a child or children with disabilities is a shared goal that we have.

That doesn't seem to me to be a very creative way to address this problem.

And in that circumstance, what will be the effect if the effort last week by Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee to slash the Workforce Investment Act by 75 percent--almost eliminate it--what will the effect be on employment…

And I know, as I said in my opening statement, there are those who want to blame the unemployed for unemployment. But aren't we in a circumstance today where there are more than four unemployed Americans available for every job opening?

And, really, if you look back over the decades through Republican administrations and Democratic administrations, when we have hit unemployment levels that are as high as they are today, have there usually been bipartisan efforts to extend…

I am thankful that it wasn't, because I think the unemployed need the assistance more in my state than Governor Perry needs their money to pay off state bonds.

With reference to the JOBS Act, my recollection is that the bill, though strongly urged in Committee and strongly opposed by me and others in Committee, was never brought by the House leadership to the House floor so that anything could be…

Today in America the problem that we face is not the unemployed, but unemployment.

We must stop the blame-the-victim approach of just blaming unemployment on the unemployed.

Let's hope that this hearing is just the first step in forging a stronger consensus that we must not abandon the millions of our neighbors who depend on unemployment insurance.

The unemployment rate in my state, 8.5 percent, stands higher today than at any time in the last quarter of a century.

Terminating unemployment assistance would hurt our nation's economy by further suppressing consumer demand and confidence.

When folks lose a job through no fault of their own, the least we ought to do is extend a life line.

Threats of default on our debt and threats to shut down the government only set back our economic recovery and cost us more jobs.

I would yield myself 15 seconds to say that under Democratic leadership we extended the supplemental TANF program that Governor Rick Perry was so proud about in 2001. We extended it four times. The only reason that it existed in the spring…

I believe that focusing on our infrastructure, our roads, bridges, our schools, focusing on what is happening inside our schools with so many teachers threatened with dismissal around the country with the cutback in State and local…

Yes, sir. We are one of the central planners that the chairman was referring to, and I have concern with this implementation timeline that there will be problems in the near term.

We should be concerned about strip clubs or any abuse of this system and see that those who abuse these programs do not receive assistance, whether they are a pharmaceutical manufacturer or an individual welfare recipient.

We are caught up in the millions and the billions, quite appropriately. But this is about looking into the face of one child who is left homeless on the streets because there is no protection, or is one of the four children in this country…

As we take up this question of how to reauthorize the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program I think we should focus on two goals: helping able-bodied recipients find the work that they need, while protecting the safety net for…

If we could do something to prevent just one of these horror stories that will take place in the next 6 hours or the next 3 hours or the next 2 hours, we would want to do that.

I have just recently filed legislation concerning the TANF supplemental grants, which were part of the original 1996 law that are very important in Texas and 15 other States in providing services.

I am troubled that the original Republican budget resolution considered earlier this year in the House would have cut the Social Services Block Grant program by $1.7 billion to the states, eliminating grants that would jeopardize…