[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 103 (Tuesday, July 13, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5770-S5771]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS

  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Madam President, it is, I believe, day 42 since 41 
Members of the Senate have blocked us through filibuster, through 
obstructionism, through threat of tying up the Senate and shutting it 
down basically so that we have not been able to extend unemployment 
benefits to workers in Charlotte, in Ashville, NC, and Columbus and 
Cleveland, OH. It is unconscionable. It is unfair to those workers who 
have worked for 20 years and lost their jobs through no doing of their 
own. It is bad economics.
  Presidential candidate McCain's economic adviser, Mark Zandi, during 
the Presidential campaign said every dollar of unemployment benefits 
generates $1.60 in economic growth. He examined various kinds of 
expenditures--everything from tax cuts to a whole bunch of other 
government programs--and what would stimulate the economy best, from 
road construction to small business tax breaks, all the kinds of things 
that we could do for job growth.
  He said--this is Republican John McCain who voted against 
unemployment extension--his economic adviser in the Presidential race 
said the best stimulus for the economy is unemployment benefits because 
every dollar that goes into the pocket of an unemployed worker in Lima, 
Gallipolis, Steubenville, or Miamisburg, OH, generates $1.60 in 
economic activity. That means they spend that dollar quickly because 
they need that money to pay their rent, to pay for utilities, to buy 
groceries, to go to the drugstore--to do all the things that are 
necessities of life that are obviously so important.
  As the Akron Beacon Journal analyzed, Summit County emergency cash 
assistance cases rose 27 percent from May 2009 to May 2010. Food stamp 
cases climbed 22 percent over the same period.
  It is an economic equation, to be sure, that extending unemployment 
benefits is the best thing for our economy. It is also a human 
equation, for all the problems people face in our country of not being 
able to simply provide for their families.
  We can talk about the statistics; 90,000 Ohioans have seen their 
unemployment benefits expire. Forty-one Members of this body--40 of 
them Republicans--have said no to extending these benefits. We know 
these numbers. We see them all the time. We are blinded sometimes by 
all the statistics.
  I would like to, as I do many days, put a human face on this issue 
and share what people in my State write to me telling me what these 
unemployment benefits mean to them.
  Lisa from Cuyahoga County, the Cleveland area:

       Please do not strand us here on the sea of uncertainty and 
     washed up on the shore of ruin. That statement may be 
     dramatic, but that is how it feels out here.
       In my case, if I was guaranteed a 40 hour a week job 
     working at a fast food restaurant, I would take it in a 
     heartbeat.
       I am currently taking care of my elderly mother college age 
     daughter on $213 a week after taxes. Do you know how far that 
     goes? I have to pay rent, electric bills, and put food on the 
     table. I am a single mother. How am I supposed to live?
       I sit in a bedroom away from my mother and daughter and cry 
     because I feel I have failed by family and we are headed for 
     ruin. We already lost the family home due to unscrupulous 
     lenders. Now I am one rent check away from being homeless.
       Please, I am begging you to be my voice and the voice of 
     the unemployed in Washington.

  Again, these are people who want to work. Some of my colleagues, some 
of the 41 who vote no consistently--we have tried week after week to 
bring this legislation to a vote--seem to think unemployment is 
welfare. It is not welfare. Many of the letters I get are from people 
who worked in the same job 20 and 30 years and lost that job and are 
trying to find work, as they are required to under the law. If you draw 
unemployment benefits, you are required to continue to look for work. 
You send out resumes, make visits to the plant, the office, or 
restaurant to try to get a job.
  Every one of these workers paid in. This is not welfare; this is 
insurance. Every one of these workers paid into the unemployment 
insurance fund, and now when they are unemployed, they are deserving of 
collecting on their insurance, if you will.

[[Page S5771]]

  Rebecca from Lorain County--that is the county in which I live in 
west Cleveland--works for Catholic Charities helping the unemployed:

       My job is trying to find resources for the people in need. 
     Every day I am deluged with requests for rental and mortgage 
     assistance by many who have exhausted their unemployment 
     benefits and have not been able to find other employment.
       One gentleman in particular is an unemployed steelworker of 
     over 25 years who is raising a 2-year-old son by himself. His 
     home is about to be foreclosed on and his employment benefits 
     have run out. What else can he do? What can I do to assist 
     him?

  I look across the aisle when we are all in this Chamber and I think: 
41 people voted against the extension of unemployment benefits. I think 
all of us are a bit too isolated in this job. We are paid well. We get 
a lot of attention. We all have good staffs, fairly large staffs of 40, 
50, 60 people both in Washington and our States, in Columbus, 
Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Lorain. I don't know that we talk with 
enough people who have been in a situation that she writes about the 
steelworker--25 years and raising a 2-year-old son by himself.
  Lisa from Cuyahoga County is taking care of her elderly mother and 
college-age daughter and already lost her home. I know empathy is in 
short supply in this world and particularly in the Senate. I wish each 
of us would read these letters and sit down and talk with somebody such 
as Lisa who first lost her job. Then she lost her health care. Then she 
has to explain to her daughter: Honey, we are not going to be able to 
stay in this house much longer because we cannot afford the rent--or 
got foreclosed.
  Mom, where are we going to live?
  I don't know yet.
  Am I going to be able to go to the same grade school I go to now?
  I don't know yet, honey, if that is going to happen.
  How are we going to move? How are we going to move our stuff?
  I don't know. We have to figure that out.
  These are questions people such as us do not have to answer very 
often, are not faced with. If my 41 colleagues would sit down and 
listen to people who deal with these problems, who experience these 
problems, it might be a different situation.
  The last letter I will read is from Marjorie from Summit County. That 
is in the Akron area:

       I have been unemployed since January. My husband lost his 
     job shortly before that. We are both college graduates. My 
     husband has a master's degree.
       Since we are both 61 years of age, employers are not hiring 
     us because we are not the right fit for the position because 
     we are either overqualified and/or too old.
       Our house is on the market because we are reaching a point 
     where we will be unable to make mortgage payments.
       We have always done the right thing raising our children 
     and being responsible citizens. But now we can't even keep a 
     roof over our heads.
       Something is not right when people make generalizations--as 
     they are doing now--about people like us who want to work, 
     who want to take care of themselves, and who are tired of 
     being shunned because we are ``one of those people.''
       We do not like the deficit growth, but we paid our taxes, 
     and we did not create this recession.
       Please share our story with those who are in a position to, 
     at least, help us with something.

  I don't know Marjorie, but I received this letter from her. I know 
from every indication that she and her husband have worked their whole 
lives. They are highly educated. Both have college degrees. One has a 
master's degree. They are not people who are unmotivated. They have 
lived in this house a long time. They do not want to sell their house, 
but they do not have much choice.
  Why can't 60 of us, with these sometimes dysfunctional Senate rules, 
with just one person from the other side of the aisle, one Republican, 
join in voting, or a couple of them come over here and vote for this 
extension so we can get the 60 votes we need? They are only going to 
get $300 a week in unemployment benefits. Most of these people have 
paid into these funds for 10, 20, 30 years, never collecting anything. 
But they are only going to get $300 a week.
  They are not going to be rich. It is not so much money that they will 
think: I don't want to bother going to work. I don't want to keep 
looking for a job. They have to keep looking for a job.
  It is the right thing to do morally. It is the right thing to do 
because of the values we hold dear in this country. It is the right 
thing to do for economic reasons. As Senator McCain's chief economic 
adviser in his Presidential race said: Nothing stimulates the economy 
more than putting this money into the community in Ravenna or Mansfield 
or Warren or Findlay and getting this generation of economic activity 
which will help to create more jobs and help to get us out of this 
recession.
  I implore again my colleagues to support the extension of 
unemployment benefits.
  Madam President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant editor of the Daily Digest proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BURRIS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BURRIS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in 
morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BURRIS. Madam President, we are on the small business bill; is 
that correct?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senate is still conducting morning 
business.

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