Extend Unemployment Benefits

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I have learned a lot in my first year in Congress, but I could serve here a lifetime and never understand how some Members could be so callous and so shortsighted that they are ready to cut off a lifeline for millions of Americans, including 137,000 New Yorkers.

These New Yorkers are hardworking people, like Stephen from Sugar Loaf, who wrote to me because he needs unemployment insurance to stay in his house; like Brenda in Fishkill, where she and her husband are both enrolled in retraining courses right now trying to get work and need this insurance just to make ends meet; like Johnine in Warwick, who lost her job to outsourcing, but still has to take care of her daughter; like Carol in Dutchess County, who may not be able to take care of her disabled husband without this assistance; like Ingrid from Highland Falls, who fought for her country in war and now has to worry about putting food on the table for her children.

We must renew unemployment insurance for people like these now because every week that goes by, there are 5,000 more people like Stephen and Brenda and Johnine and Carol and Ingrid. These aren't statistics. They are hardworking Americans, and they need this Congress to act, and act now.

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