OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Unemployment Benefits

Floor Speech

Date: Feb. 3, 2012
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Employment and Affirmative Action

Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in complete disgust of the Republican conferees' attempt to include an education requirement as a condition of receiving unemployment benefits.

To require people who would otherwise be eligible for benefits to now either have a high school diploma or be enrolled in a GED program is discriminatory. It is despicable.

Adding conditions to receiving compensation does nothing to create jobs or address the real causes of unemployment. It is a difficult time, Mr. Speaker, to be unemployed in America, but Republicans seem determined to make it even more difficult by kicking the unemployed while they're down.

With less than a month to craft a long-term tax measure, I urge Republican conferees to stop obstructing the process by insisting on distracting proposals that are only meant to score political points.

I am opposed to any education requirement to receive unemployment benefits. I implore my colleagues to do the same.


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