[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 107 (Tuesday, July 20, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6009-S6010]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE

  Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I rise to talk about an issue we are going 
to be voting on today, thank goodness. We are going to be voting on an 
extension of unemployment insurance, which is something many of us in 
the Senate have tried to pass for many weeks now. We have been blocked 
by the Republican side of the aisle.
  We are finally at a point now where we think we can get the votes 
today to extend unemployment insurance. It is badly needed. You don't 
have to be a Senator or a Member of Congress to have heard from people 
all across this country about what this means to them. Those of us who 
are serving in the Senate have received letters, e-mails, phone calls, 
and other communications from people within our States.
  In Pennsylvania, the people have made it abundantly clear to me and 
my office over many weeks now about how urgent a problem this is in 
their lives. This isn't about some complicated, remote issue; this is 
an issue of life and death, in some instances. But for most, it is an 
issue of getting by every week, making ends meet, paying bills, 
providing health care for their children, those who have lost their 
jobs, through no fault of their own, being able to have the dignity 
that comes from providing for your family. We know we have more than 14 
million Americans out of work. In Pennsylvania, we have over 591,000 
people out of work. If that is not a record, it is very close to one. I 
know it is a high for the last quarter century in Pennsylvania.
  The last unemployment extension expired 5 weeks ago, on June 4. 
Without an extension, just about 1.2 million people have lost their 
benefits in the month of June, just last month. If this continues to be 
blocked in the Senate, we know another 2 million will be without 
benefits by the end of this month, July. In the Commonwealth of 
Pennsylvania, over 200,000 will have exhausted their unemployment 
benefits by the end of this month. That means one-third of 
Pennsylvania's jobless will be without benefits by the end of this 
month.
  To say this is anything but an emergency is an understatement. To 
continue to block an unemployment insurance extension is irresponsible, 
in a word, and I think callously irresponsible. Also, I think it is an 
action that is harmful to our economy. We know, for example, that if 
you spend a buck in unemployment insurance, you will get a lot more 
than a buck in return for the economic impact. The Congressional Budget 
Office has an estimate to the effect that for the GDP, gross domestic 
product, it may be as high as $1.90 for every $1 you spend on 
unemployment insurance. So you spend a buck and get a $1.90 back. That 
is an even higher number than a lot of us have pointed to prior to 
this.
  Mark Zandi, one of our leading economists, said years ago, I think, 
that if you spend a buck on unemployment insurance, you get about $1.60 
back. Such as when you spend $1 on food stamps, you get more than 
that--maybe $1.70--in return. Now we have the CBO saying the return 
might be as high as $1.90 for every $1 you spend on unemployment 
insurance.
  There are those in Washington and around the country who are trying 
to make political arguments against extending this and using a lot of 
hot air in the process to oppose the extension, block the extension, 
slow down the effort to provide this bridge that unemployment insurance 
is, for people who paid into this program for years, in many instances, 
for just this purpose--when the economy is in the ditch, when they lose 
jobs and they are trying to get this help.
  We have had weeks and weeks of efforts to block this. We should be at 
the end--we hope. In the end, this isn't simply about a program or 
about an extension or about what the Federal Government is doing; this 
is about real people and their lives and the challenges in their lives.
  I have received lots of correspondence--whether they are letters, e-
mails or phone calls--and I will highlight a few examples. We had a 
letter from Frank--I will just use the first name so we don't disclose 
people's names. He

[[Page S6010]]

has been seeking employment for a long time. He said:

       I have gone through a lot of health situations since being 
     home--

  Meaning since being home after losing his job.

     constantly worrying will I get a job, is there going to be 
     enough money, or when are my benefits going to be cutoff. . . 
     . The worries are overpowering and devastating.

  A lot of these letters we are getting speak in those terms. This 
isn't a mechanical thing or a question about a program or whether the 
Senate will do this or that; this is about whether Frank, in this 
instance, who lives in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is going to be 
able to have enough money to provide for his family. So this is about 
worry and emotion and about real anxiety that people feel in the midst 
of the most horrific recession since the 1930s. This isn't some far off 
remote problem; this is real life for someone such as Frank. Then he 
goes on from there to say:

       My ex-wife came home from work to advise me and our 
     children that she will be losing her job on August 6, 2010, 
     due to her company outsourcing [the work of that company] to 
     India. She was employed there for 21 years. She carries our 
     medical insurance and 80 percent of our income. We have a 12-
     year-old [child] with Cystic Fibrosis, which is a fatal 
     disease, and this precious child will be without [health] 
     insurance that pays for the very medicine that keeps her 
     alive.

  He goes on from there in his letter. I will end the quote with that 
line about his daughter with cystic fibrosis. So this isn't just about 
paying the light bill or paying the mortgage or making ends meet in a 
general way; this is about whether this family can provide health 
insurance for a 12-year-old with cystic fibrosis. That is what we are 
talking about, in many instances. We are talking about health care. 
When you lose your job, unfortunately, the direct impact isn't just on 
income; it is about whether you have health insurance. That is Frank's 
story in Pennsylvania.
  I will give one more example because we are short on time.
  Rachel, from Pennsylvania, writes to us in an e-mail. She says this:

       I am writing for my husband.

  Sometimes a person who loses a job is too embarrassed to write or 
doesn't want to express the feelings that are tearing them apart 
inside. They don't want to write down on paper the anxiety they are 
living with--the horror of not having enough to provide for your 
family. She is writing for her husband, saying he was laid off from his 
job as a GPS operator. She said the best way to take care of his 
family, he thought at that point, was to become an airman in the 
National Guard. He enlisted this year, and he entered the program for 
the Air National Guard. He excelled in the program, but he couldn't 
proceed to basic training because he needs dental work. Rachel and her 
husband, similar to so many others, have no health and dental 
insurance.
  She says--and this is direct quotation from the letter:

       I am doing everything I can, including working 2 jobs, to 
     keep us above water, and we are drowning at a speed I never 
     imagined. I bring home $700 a month, which doesn't cover our 
     rent, let alone car insurance, groceries, the electric bill, 
     et cetera. We do not want to live extravagantly. We just want 
     to live.

  That is what Rachel says about her situation because of the loss of a 
job that her husband had to experience. He is becoming an airman in the 
National Guard to try to make ends meet. I could go on, but I will not 
because we don't have the time.
  That is what this is about. This isn't a theoretical issue or some 
government program over here that none of us fully understands. This is 
about real lives, providing health insurance for families, making ends 
meet, and basic dignity that people feel robbed of because they lost 
their job, and some people in Washington don't want to lift a finger to 
help them. It doesn't take much to say aye when your name is called to 
vote for an extension of unemployment insurance. That is what the 
program is for. It is for emergencies, when people's lives are at 
risk--at least the life of their family to be able to make ends meet. 
That is what we are talking about. That is why I urge every Member of 
the Senate not to vote for your own political priorities but to vote 
for Frank and Rachel in Pennsylvania, who have written to us, and 
people similar to them all across this country. I think we are going to 
finally get an affirmative vote, but it is long overdue.
  With that, I yield the floor.

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