For more than 300 days, the Republicans have controlled the House and we have yet to address one of the biggest issues facing our nation: passing a comprehensive jobs plan to strengthen our economy and address the needs and priorities of getting people back to work. With high unemployment and no immediate end in sight, we must assist the unemployed as they look for work. That's why I've signed up to be an original cosponsor and support legislation that's been introduced by my friend Rep. Sander Levin to prevent over 6 million jobless Americans from losing their unemployment benefits next year by continuing the current Federal unemployment insurance programs through 2012. Without this extension of the federal unemployment programs, over 2 million jobless Americans, 81,000 in Michigan, will lose their benefits by mid-February. We need to help unemployed Michiganders find work, not force them into poverty, and I'll keep working to help them.