Extended Unemployment Benefits Are Hurting Main Street

Floor Speech

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Mrs. WALORSKI. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for hosting this critical Special Order to discuss the ongoing impact of enhanced unemployment benefits on Main Street businesses, the American workforce, and our economic recovery.

Like many of my colleagues, I have seen ``help wanted'' signs all over my district. I have heard from local job creators about the difficulties they face in hiring workers they need just to stay open. Many have told me they can't even get people to show up for an interview.

Enhanced Federal unemployment benefits made sense last year as a way to keep those who lost a job and to reduce the economic impact of government-imposed business closures and stay-at-home orders. But now, we are facing a much different situation today.

Safe and effective vaccines are bringing us closer to defeating COVID-19. Employers have updated their facilities and operations so workers can safely return back to work. Businesses are fully operating.

Now is the time to reconnect unemployed workers with their jobs, but enhanced jobless benefits are discouraging Americans from returning to work, making it impossible for businesses to hire.

The Democrats' partisan $1.9 trillion spending bill extended supplemental unemployment benefits of $300 per week until September 6. At this level, nearly 40 percent of jobless Americans can make more on unemployment than they can by returning to work.

Main Street businesses shouldn't have to compete with the Federal Government for workers. In fact, they can't compete with the Federal Government for workers. The labor shortage currently is crushing small businesses, which are fighting to keep their businesses alive while coming out of a pandemic.

In late March, I hosted a virtual roundtable and heard from a Hoosier who owns a small insulation company. He told me: It has been quite the burden to have all these tools on hand and all these trucks in the driveway and to put people in the seats to get them to be able to drive to homes to provide insulation when nobody wants to come to work.

Just last week, we saw the undeniable impact of these misguided policies when the monthly jobs report showed hiring slowing to a crawl in April in this country, despite millions of job openings.

My biggest fear is that we will see permanent job loss across our economy as small businesses close their doors because they can't hire workers that they need.

But it is not too late to avoid this outcome. I recently joined Ways and Means Republican leader Kevin Brady in introducing the Reopening America by Supporting Workers and Businesses Act. Our bill would turn extra unemployment benefits into a back-to-work bonus that would incentivize these workers to come back to work instead of staying on unemployment. The legislation would also reinstate the Federal requirement that those receiving unemployment benefits be engaged in actively searching for a job.

The American people have faced unprecedented challenges since last spring. Now, safe and effective vaccines have given us renewed hope that we can defeat COVID-19, rebuild our economy, and return to normal life.

Let's not put our recovery at risk by pushing workers to the sidelines of this economy. Let's get Americans back to work, Main Street businesses back on their feet, and the American Dream back on track for every single American.

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