The American People Need a Vote on Extended Unemployment Insurance

Floor Speech

Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, it has been 1 month since the Senate acted in a bipartisan fashion to pass emergency unemployment extension.

Just hours after the Senate acted, I introduced a bill, H.R. 4415, the same language passed by the Senate. It is fully paid for, would not increase the deficit, unlike the hundreds of billions of dollars in permanent tax breaks that the Republican leadership intends to bring to the floor this week.

A month later, we still have no vote scheduled for extending unemployment insurance for millions of Americans--no vote, despite the fact that over 150 Members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, have cosponsored H.R. 4415; no vote, despite the fact that 2.6 million Americans have already lost this important benefit and 2.8 million will have lost that benefit by the end of the month, almost 3 million Americans; no vote, with 72,000 individuals, hardworking Americans, every week at risk of losing their unemployment insurance if we don't act.

Helping jobless Americans who are actively looking for work is not only the right thing to do, but we have done this before. We have done this under Democratic administrations and Republican administrations. It is not a handout. It is simply a lifeline to help those folks who have lost their job stay above ground, above water, before they get their next job.

This should not be a partisan issue; yet, yesterday, the Republican leadership said no to letting some of these jobless Americans testify at a Capitol Hill hearing. We were locked out of the room that we had requested.

2.8 million jobless Americans, they may be invisible to the House Republican leadership, but they will not be silenced.

While they were locked out of the hearing room at the Rayburn House Office Building, I and other Members joined these unemployed Americans yesterday, went to the steps of the Capitol, and listened to them as they told their stories. This is their Capitol; it is not ours. It belongs to them, and their voices deserve to be heard.

I also asked hardworking Americans who are unemployed to tweet and email me their stories. My newsfeed and inbox was flooded with stories of people just trying to get by, struggling to pay their rent, struggling to feed their families as they continue to be denied a vote in the House of Representatives to renew unemployment insurance.

They have continued to be denied their voice in the House of Representatives, and this is the people's House. So what I would like to do with my remaining time is just tell a few of the stories that have come in. Lynette B. says:

We just received our foreclosure letter on our home. I am 49 years old, and this is certainly not where I see myself at this age. I am educated, and I have been applying to no less than three jobs per day, only to not get a reply to most of them, or else I am overqualified.

Jennifer S., this is Jennifer and her family:

I never thought I would be in this position, unemployed and worrying about feeding my two growing boys, 14 and 9. I have had to go to food pantries to keep food on the table. I am behind in my car payment and the utilities since my unemployment benefits stopped December 28.

Laura B. writes:

I need the extension, so I can afford to keep the Internet on to look for jobs and afford the gas to go to interviews. It's very hard out there, and there are so many unemployed people looking for each job, that the chances are slim.

Angela M. writes:

Please help with UI. I have lost almost everything, sold my car, pawned my wedding rings, selling furniture to keep a rented roof over my kids' heads.

Elaine G. writes:

I live with my 27-year-old daughter and sleep on an air mattress. I have no phone. I complete job applications now and ask employers to contact me through email. I expect, any day, that my car will be repossessed, as soon as the finance company is able to locate the car.

Carol C. writes:

Come June 1, I will have to leave my apartment. My car, phone, Internet will be gone. I have no money for essentials like good toilet paper and soap. How does somebody find a job?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for allowing me to raise these voices. These are real Americans. They are real stories.

Some of the questions we face in this Congress are complicated. This one is simple. Take up H.R. 4415, and we can take away the pain that so many Americans--almost 3 million Americans--are facing.

Source