Restoration of Emergency Unemployment Compensation Act of 2010

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Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, if we fail to act, 1.7 million Americans will lose their unemployment benefits by the end of this week. The House tried to address this issue a month ago as part of a much larger jobs package, but Republican opposition killed the bill in the other body.

America's unemployed workers cannot wait any longer for all of us to do the right thing. Many of them have lost their benefits after just 26 weeks. And we're not talking about people who've had 99 weeks of unemployment. We're talking people 26 weeks of unemployment in a time when we have almost 10 percent unemployed. And that's even as long-term unemployment has reached the highest levels since we've been counting. And yet, only one, one of more than 200 Republicans in Congress has voted to continue the benefits.

So we're bringing up a stand-alone bill to extend unemployment benefits so there can be no excuses. There's no place to hide in this. You are looking the unemployed straight in the face.

If you vote ``no'' you will be cutting off unemployment benefits to Americans who have worked hard and played by the rules but now find themselves with no job, no savings, and no support.

If you vote ``no'' you are abandoning unemployed Americans when there are five of them desperately searching for every job that's out there.

If you vote ``no'' you'll be helping increase the number of homes in foreclosure. If you don't get an unemployment check, you don't have money to pay your mortgage, so your house is going to go in the tank. The number of families declaring bankruptcy and the number of children going hungry will go up in America, in the richest country in the world.

If you vote ``no'' you're undermining economic recovery by choking consumer demand at a critical time.

And if you vote ``no'' I honestly don't know how you're able to go home and march in a Fourth of July parade as millions of Americans are left without any way to keep a roof over their head or food on the table for their children.

No excuses this time. No place to hide. We must pass this bill.

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