Floor Statement of Senator Edward M. Kennedy in Support of the Unemployment Insurance Extension Amendment

FLOOR STATEMENT OF SENATOR EDWARD M. KENNEDY IN SUPPORT OF THE UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE EXTENSION AMENDMENT

All Americans understand that the economy has been deteriorating for more than two years. President Bush claims that tax cuts for the rich will create jobs. Well, we tried it his way in 2001, and we lost two and a half million jobs.

Alan Greenspan, Warren Buffett, and the nation's leading economists, including ten Nobel laureates, all agree that the Bush plan is the wrong prescription for the sick economy.

Average Americans are hurting, and it's time for a change. We need an economic plan that helps our fellow citizens survive and creates new jobs. Yet, there is not one penny in this bill to provide unemployment compensation for America's laid off workers.

Unemployment benefits expire in just two weeks for many of these workers. And my amendment extends these benefits by allocating $12.7 billion from the acceleration of the upper tax bracket reduction.

Americans are the most productive workers in the world. Our workers take pride in doing a good job, providing for their families, putting their children through school, and saving for a secure retirement.

But for millions of Americans, that dream is gone. Years of saving and sacrifice have disappeared with a single pink slip. Instead of looking to a bright future, now they must look their children in the eye and say, "I'm sorry, but you can't go to college. You can't buy new shoes. We can no longer afford to stay in this house."

In fact, since losing their jobs, one in every four have moved to less expensive housing or moved in with friends or family. More than a third can't pay their electric and gas bills. More than half cut back on food. About half have no health insurance.

For the half million men and women who joined the unemployment lines in the past three months, no end is in sight. In Massachusetts, the jobless rate jumped to a nine-year high of 5.7 percent. Nationally, the unemployment rate has reached 6 percent, with 9 million Americans out-of-work - and two million of those out of work for more than six months.

But these Americans are not the first priority for the White House. In fact, in this economy, with no jobs, they have learned a lot about being second class citizens - with second mortgages and second-hand clothes to help make ends meet.

Our first priority on the economy is to get these worthy Americans back to work, not just reward the wealthy. A major part of that effort must be help for the unemployed.

The current federal unemployment benefit program runs out at the end of this month. But with the continuing troubled economy, this extension cannot be business as usual. My amendment extends the current program for six months, but also helps the 1.1 million Americans who are long-term unemployed, and the hundreds of thousands who are part-time and low-wage workers who would otherwise get no help at all.

My amendment provides 26 weeks of benefits to out-of-work Americans, just as we provided during the last recession in bipartisan bills signed by the first President Bush.

Nearly one million more private sector jobs have been lost during this recession than over the same period of the early 1990s recession. And twice as many workers have exhausted their unemployment benefits in the first year of the current crisis as during the first year of the 1990s recession. Americans who cannot find jobs deserve the same assistance we provided a decade ago.

In the last recession, we also made sure that workers who ran out of federal benefits but still could not find work were not left in the cold. Today, one in five unemployed workers has been out of work for more than six months. In January, we left one million of these long-term unemployed without jobs and without any safety net. Today, there are 100,000 more. My amendment provides 13 more weeks of benefits for these long-suffering Americans.

Clearly, we owe it to all workers who have lost jobs in this economy to provide help while they look for new jobs. The actions in recent months to extend benefits have left out too many workers - particularly compared to America's response in the past. In 1975, 75 percent of unemployed workers were eligible for unemployment benefits, compared to only half of such workers last year. Many of the unemployed who fail to receive benefits are part-time and low-wage workers. Part-time and low-wage workers pay into the system, and they should be able to rely on it while searching for a new job. My amendment offers states the option to request federal assistance to provide benefits for these workers.

Out-of-work Americans have worked hard all of their lives. They have paid into the unemployment insurance system, which now has $20.5 billion in the trust fund. We cannot now say to these citizens - now that you are out-of-work and struggling to pay your bills, we will not let you collect on your insurance policy.

I urge my colleagues to vote for this amendment, which will provide a lifeline to those hurt the most by the protracted economic downturn. The extension runs out in just two weeks. We cannot wait. Congress must act now to provide the assistance out-of-work Americans deserve.