Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010

DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2010 -- (House of Representatives - July 24, 2009)

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Mr. CAMP. Mr. Chairman, I intend to vote against this bill, but I want to recognize and highlight one section, and that is ensuring workers continue to get promised regular and extended unemployment benefits and States are able to keep paying those benefits. Let's be clear why this provision is necessary. The Democrats' economic policy has resulted in record job loss, record deficits and none of the job creation they promised. But American workers should not pay for the mistakes and failures of the Democrats' so-called stimulus bill.

Just yesterday we reached yet another record in the number of American workers collecting unemployment checks instead of paychecks, and the Nation's unemployment rate is headed quickly to 10 percent and is already above 15 percent in my home State of Michigan.

Mr. Chairman, Americans can surely see the record unemployment, but they cannot see where the jobs are. The President and administration officials recently suggested their stimulus plan is working as intended and helping the economy recover. Well, it's not. The bill before us proves that. As the chart next to me shows, since President Obama was sworn into office, the Nation's public debt and unemployment combined, the Obama Misery Index, has risen by a shocking 40 percent, and that's before literally trillions of dollars in additional spending under the Democrats' stimulus, energy and health plans, and whatever higher unemployment lies ahead.

The bill reflects the continued failure of their economic policy to save or create millions of jobs they promised would flow quickly from their stimulus bill. Mr. Chairman, Republicans offered a plan that would have provided twice the jobs at half the cost. It was disappointing when it was rejected earlier this year, and the bill before us, in which Congress is bailing out the Federal unemployment bailout fund for States, is yet another reminder of the failure of the bill Democrats wrote behind closed doors and forced through Congress.

Given the amendments, as the ranking member articulated, that were not allowed or not included, I can only hope that this bill comes back from the Senate improved. Mr. Chairman, we must help those who need help. But it would be nice if the Congress would provide them a job, not another unemployment check.

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