[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 27 (Monday, March 1, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S825-S826]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            COSTLY INACTION

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, every night too many out-of-work Nevadans 
and Americans, people who want to work, who need to support their 
families but can't find a job, go to bed with at least the comfort of 
having unemployment insurance and health benefits. Last night, more 
than a million people throughout America who went to sleep relying on 
those benefits woke up without the confidence they will be there now. 
Early this morning, when they would rather be spending their mornings 
working, mothers and fathers in every State woke up to line up at the 
unemployment office in a long line. News reports today are that these 
lines

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are very long today, all over the country, from Virginia to Nevada to 
Kentucky. They are long because these people are worried about how they 
are going to put food on the table and pay the bills. For far too many 
Americans, those benefits were set to expire last night. So six times 
last week, Democrats asked to extend their unemployment benefits for a 
short time while we work on a longer extension. Six times, Republicans 
said no. They didn't say no to us; that is, Members of the Senate, they 
said no to the families in their own States and all States who count on 
us to act when we need action, who count on us to respond in the event 
of an emergency. This is an emergency.
  Republicans in the Senate are standing between these families and the 
help they need while these benefits expire. It might work because under 
the Senate rules they can do that, but it certainly doesn't work for 
working families whose need to buy groceries does not expire. The need 
to heat your homes, put gas in the car, make payments for furniture you 
buy, the car you bought, your house payment, the need to take medicine 
or support an aging parent or to take care of your kids, they don't 
expire.
  Those opposed to helping our fellow citizens at their time of 
greatest need want to talk about process. My Republican colleagues came 
to the floor and talked about process. They had a right to do that. 
Under the rules, I guess that is true. But if you can't afford to feed 
your kids, process doesn't mean anything to you.
  We often talk about the cost of inaction. It is the reason we insist 
on creating jobs and making health care more affordable and on 
strengthening national security. When we talk about the cost of 
inaction, it is more than just rhetoric; it comes with dire 
consequences. Americans who woke up this morning without the benefits 
they need now know that better than anyone else.
  The Associated Press runs all over the country--a newswire. Among 
other things, this article says this morning:

       Two thousand federal transportation workers will be 
     furloughed without pay [today].

  The reason we are talking about 2,000, this doesn't count the 
thousands and thousands, up to 1 million people who are not going to 
have jobs as a result of not extending the highway bill. That is what 
we want to do--let these people work--because what has happened is that 
even the inspectors can't go out and do their jobs, so people are just 
walking away from these jobs. Secretary LaHood, the Secretary of 
Transportation--a Republican Congressman until he was appointed--said 
construction workers will be sent home from jobsites because Federal 
inspectors must be furloughed. They named a long list of construction 
sites that will be halted: George Washington Parkway in Virginia, the 
Humpback Bridge--I don't know where that is in Virginia--bridge 
construction in Coeur d'Alene, ID. All over the country, this is 
happening. The safety inspectors have no pay, so they have to leave. 
Nothing is happening. This is going to lead to untold numbers of 
people--I said up to 1 million people--who will not be able to work.
  It is really wrong what has taken place here. It is not too late to 
right that wrong. I hope Republicans will reconsider, think about their 
constituents standing in the unemployment lines as we speak. I hope 
they reconsider.

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