[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 20, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H5]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page H5]]
                   EXTENSION OF UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS

  (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, a constituent in my district named 
Virginia received something very special this Christmas. The gift, if 
we could call it that, came directly from the Bush White House and the 
Republican leadership. Pretty impressive. It arrived on December 23 and 
stayed through the holidays. It was a notice saying her extended 
unemployment benefits would end soon. Merry Christmas, Virginia. 
Eighty-two thousand other Washington residents face the same fate in 
the first 6 months of this year.
  It does not matter whether there is money in the account or there is 
a jobless recovery underway, we realize last month we got 20 jobs in 
the State of Washington, 1,000 in the whole country. Virginia and 
thousands of other average Americans will remember this Christmas for a 
long time as the Christmas when she was forgotten by the Republican 
leadership and the White House.
  Tonight, the President will be upbeat. I just gave my colleagues the 
State of the Union in one household in my district. Virginia is 
anything but upbeat. She is frightened, she is angry. She calls it 
unconscionable. We ought to call it disgraceful.
  I call upon the President and the Republican leadership to recognize 
the ordinary Americans and support them by immediately passing an 
extension of unemployment benefits. Eighty-two thousand people in my 
State will remember.

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