The House has just passed the
Emergency Extended Unemployment Compensation Act, H.R. 5749, by a veto-proof margin of
274-137 after
Republicans blocked the legislation yesterday. The legislation will immediately provide up to 13 weeks of extended unemployment benefits in every state to workers exhausting the 26 weeks of regular unemployment benefits, providing much-needed relief to 3.8 million unemployed workers to assist them with rapidly rising gas and food costs, while they continue to struggle to find work in the slowing economy.
Learn more in our current legislation section >>
Speaker Pelosi and Rep. Sandy Levin (MI-12) debunked opposition arguments on the floor today.
| Speaker Pelosi: "This isn't about people sitting on their butts back home saying, 'Goody, I'm getting an unemployment check. Now I can really look my family in the eye and say, I'm providing for you.' These people want to provide for their families. To imply anything else is an insult to these millions of people who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own and in large measure because of the Bush Administration's failed economic policies... Extending unemployment benefits not only helps those who are looking for work, it stimulates the economy. According to the Congressional Budget Office, it is one of the most cost-effective and fast-acting ways to stimulate the economy because the money is spent quickly." |
| Rep. Levin: "Look, I'll take back my time. The two-week window, you talk about 26 additional weeks, 52 weeks. You can't give a single example... You raise a strong man and woman. When we're talking about real men and women who have been laid off, who have been looking for a job, who can't find it. And you come here with these arguments. You go home to Yakima. Others of you go back to Pennsylvania and other states and talk to the hundreds of thousands of people looking for work and say to them, 'I voted no,' that's unconscionable." |
Chairman Charlie Rangel of the Ways and Means Committee, Chairman Jim McDermott of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support, and Rep. John Lewis (GA-05) spoke in favor yesterday:
| Chairman Rangel: "But it's their dreams I think that make us different from any other country and any other democracy, knowing that in this country there is no glass ceiling. And no matter what we accomplish, that we can dream for our kids and for our grandkids. Today through no fault of their own, this dream is being shattered. It's being shattered by the deficits, it's being shattered by war, it's being shattered by losing our kids, losing our jobs, losing our hope, increased prices of oil, and people are concerned about where do we go from here? I suggest to you that no one can challenge the fact that this country cannot go any further than our middle class. So it's up to us to find out how do we handle this and how do we explain at a time when they're in most need, not just in terms of dollars and cents but in hope, that this country is going to pull out of this as we have in the past." |
| Chairman McDermott: "No Member who's read a newspaper or spent any time in a Congressional District talking to constituents lately could possibly miss the fact that the economy is in serious trouble and so are millions of Americans and it will just keep getting worse until we act. Last Friday we saw the largest one-month jump in unemployment rate in -- jump in unemployment rate in 22 years. Now, does anyone doubt the gravity of that situation? Across America, the unemployment rate is rising, it's over 7% in Michigan and above 6% in Alaska and a half a dozen other states. 18% of the unemployment, unemployed in this country, have not been able to find a job for at least six months. They have exhausted all their benefits. And that's what this bill deals with. Everywhere you look, people are worried about their home and their family and their future." |
| Rep. Lewis: "People are calling out, crying out for help. They ask, where's the federal government? Where is Congress? Which side is the government on? What are you doing to help the unemployed? People lost their jobs. It's not their fault. What are you doing to help those in need, those no need a helping hand? What are you doing and doing now? Mr. Speaker, some of us may not remember this or maybe we never had to do it, just a few short years ago, many people in this country wash their clothes at night and held them up to the fireplace so they could dry and wear them to work the next morning. I wonder if we're back to that reality." |