Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I am glad to be here on behalf of the Progressive Caucus today for the Progressive Caucus Special Order hour. We want to talk about the need to extend unemployment benefits in this country. Since the end of December, millions of Americans have lost their extended unemployment benefits and are struggling just to get by in this economy. We have had two really positive developments this week. One, the House Democrats have an initiative, led by Representative Brad Schneider of Illinois, to do a discharge petition, which is a procedural motion to force the leadership of this body to let us vote on extending unemployment benefits, which it refuses to do. We have to get 218 signatures--a majority of the House--to sign the discharge petition. If that happens, we can force a vote and make sure that people who have lost their benefits since the end of December get their benefits. That is the first important thing that has happened. The second important thing is, today, just this afternoon, it was announced there is a bipartisan agreement in the Senate by several senators to make sure that we can extend benefits through the month of May of this year. We need to do everything possible not only to make sure that the Senate passes that, but to make sure that this House takes up that action. Because if we don't, millions of people--and many more every single week--will not get access to unemployment benefits.…”