[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 34 (Thursday, February 26, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H2839]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ECONOMIC STIMULUS BILL

  (Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I was proud to vote for the economic stimulus 
bill, and one of the things that it had that is most effective, timely, 
targeted, and temporary is unemployment compensation of people who are 
on the front lines and suffer because of this recession.
  Money going to those people immediately go into the economy and 
stimulate the economy, and nobody can debate that. It also helps the 
people most in need.
  So I was most distressed when southern governors, led by Bobby 
Jindal, a former Member of this House, and others and now my own 
governor have suggested they may not take that money. To not take that 
money means this recession lingers. To not take that money means the 
people that have been hurt the most suffer the most again.
  It is wrong, and it reminds me of old, unrepentant, unreformed 
southern governors with interposition dripping off their lips who gave 
this, the South, a bad reputation because they didn't work with the 
Federal Government to make this a more perfect Union.

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