Extend Unemployment Benefits

Floor Speech

Mr. HIMES. Madam Speaker, today this House will take up the question of whether we should extend the temporary unemployment insurance programs currently in place. If this House chooses not to do that, 2 million Americans will go into the holidays wondering not whether they will just have a holiday meal, but whether they will have a meal at all.

But let's set aside what is probably the most important thing that each and every one of us should think about, which is those people and how the holidays will look for them. Let's talk history for a second.

The fact is that the Congress of the United States has never cut unemployment insurance benefits when unemployment was anywhere near where it is today. In fact, following the 2001 recession, the Republican-controlled Congress maintained temporary unemployment insurance until the unemployment rate fell below 6 percent, well below where we are today.

Let's do something else. Let's talk economics. Every Member of this House knows that the most important thing we can do right now is to help this economy recover: Jobs.

Financial institutions that look at this stuff tell us that if we allow unemployment insurance to go away, it will have a profoundly negative effect on the economy; a number of banks estimate half a percentage point of GDP. We must renew unemployment benefits.

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