Three Major Crises

Floor Speech

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Mr. MEUSER. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend, the gentleman from Louisiana, our Republican vice chair, for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, since the onset of the pandemic, our small businesses have been faced with immeasurable challenges. Though our recovery from the pandemic is underway, businesses now face an unnecessary worker shortage due in part to enhanced unemployment compensation payments that disincentivize work.

Each week, I speak with small business owners from across my district who tell me they have open jobs, but can't fill them and compete with enhanced unemployment. One of the largest employers in my district, East Penn Manufacturing, is hosting weekly job fairs to fill hundreds of good-paying manufacturing jobs they have available and are going unfilled.

Enhanced unemployment compensation was never intended, Mr. Speaker, to be permanent, but it is now disrupting the labor market on the onset of what can be a strong recovery. As more Americans continue to get vaccinated and our COVID cases continue to decline, it is time for us to stop this disincentivizing work.

Unemployment assistance programs should be revised to target those unable to work, such as parents with children at home due to school closures or those not physically able. Those who can work and choose not to should not be able to receive generous unemployment compensation at a rate often more than $20 per hour.

The U.S. Department of Labor reports 8.1 million jobs were open in March, and there are plentiful well-paying jobs in every industry offering incentives for new hires across Pennsylvania. Despite this, Pennsylvania's unemployment rate is even higher than the national average.

That is why last week I sent a letter to the Governor of Pennsylvania urging him to better target supplemental unemployment compensation to those who truly need it and reinstate work search requirements that were waived last year. Despite an abundant job market, our economy added only 266,000 jobs last week.

Mr. Speaker, as I close, businesses are creating new jobs every day. We owe it to them to at least create job seekers.

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