[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 12 (Tuesday, February 12, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H237-H238]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              UNEMPLOYED AMERICAN WORKERS NEED ASSISTANCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Culberson). Pursuant to the order of the 
House of January 23, 2002, the gentleman from California (Mr. George 
Miller of California) is recognized during morning hour debates for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, later this week the 
House will adjourn for district work period in honor of Presidents Day 
and give us an opportunity to go home and talk to our constituents. It 
is a tragedy before we adjourn, we will not deal with the problems of 
unemployment. Those who were unemployed prior to September 11, who have 
been unemployed for many, many months, those who were unemployed as a 
result of September 11 because of the downturn in the economy because 
of that tragic event against this country, but both of these categories 
of the unemployed need our help. They are exhausting their unemployment 
benefits.
  Close to a million people have exhausted their unemployment benefits. 
Many of those who were unemployed were working in occupations that were 
at the margins. They were not able to build up extensive savings 
accounts or a rainy day fund for their family. They were not able to 
pay their mortgage in advance or car payments in advance. When the 
checks stopped, they were in trouble.
  I have now listened to many of these workers in California, Indiana 
and New Jersey who have testified that they worked for 15 years, 10 
years, 8 years, women in professional jobs at banks, truck drivers, 
people who worked in the dot-com industry, and now they are in serious 
financial trouble because they are in the process of exhausting their 
unemployment benefits.
  Last week the Senate took the necessary step to extend it for an 
additional 13 weeks. Last week the House of Representatives did 
nothing. This week the House of Representatives will do nothing. It is 
incredible the insensitivity of the Republican leadership to the needs 
of these hard-working American families. These are people who have 
really, really good work records. They have been trying to provide for 
their families for many years. A young man who worked for Sunkist 
Corporation in California told our meeting that he had been driving a 
truck for 15 years, he was able to buy a home a few months ago, and now 
he is scrambling to pay the mortgage. He is invading his retirement 
benefits and 401(k) to try to save his house. This is not an unusual 
story.
  There is also the issue of over 2 million people who have lost health 
care benefits because of unemployment. Congress has failed to respond. 
One of the proposals was to help them provide the payment of the COBRA 
benefit that allows workers to continue the employer's health insurance 
plan until

[[Page H238]]

reemployed. That is an absolute necessity for many of the unemployed 
because if they cannot continue that plan and they have a preexisting 
health condition, or their child has a preexisting health condition or 
spouse does, that individual's break in employment, break in health 
insurance means very likely that condition will not be covered when 
reemployed. That is why the COBRA benefit is so terribly important. Yet 
for those 2 million people, Congress has done nothing.
  The tax credit that the President offers does not solve that problem 
for hundreds of thousands of families that are in that situation. Or 
for those people's whose spouses may have had a bout with cancer, or 
whose children who may have a childhood illness, that would not be 
covered.
  Yet Congress insists it is going to take leave of this town, go home 
for 13 or 14 days, and we are going to fail to address the needs of 
these families. We must understand that these families are in dire 
financial straits. In dire financial straits. They are either adding up 
their debt because they are living off of what credit card debt they 
have available to them, they are borrowing from family members, or they 
are invading their retirement funds. Why in America should a working 
family that finds itself unemployed through no fault of their own, 
because of a terrorist activity or because of a downturn in the 
economy, they showed up and went to work every day, why should they 
lose all of their assets before we help them with health care or extend 
them some benefits?
  Mr. Speaker, we ought to extend the 13 weeks immediately. If there is 
a break, and a worker has been working in the hospitality industry or 
low-paying jobs in this country, 2 weeks, 4 weeks without a check is a 
devastating event. Maybe Members of Congress cannot understand that, 
but when Members go home for the district work period, Members need to 
talk to these people. Then Members will begin to understand the 
desperate straits that millions of Americans find themselves in because 
of this Congress' failure to extend the unemployment benefits.

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