[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 73 (Wednesday, May 25, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H3421]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     JOBS ACT CRUEL REPUBLICAN HOAX

  (Mr. MORAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, despite a slow recovery, despite millions 
suffering on the unemployment rolls, the Republican leadership has 
failed to bring a jobs bill to this floor during the first 100 days. 
Now we learn that one in name only is under consideration. It is called 
the Jobs Opportunity Benefits and Services Act, which of course 
cleverly has the acronym JOBS, but it is not going to create jobs. It 
is actually designed to cut off emergency unemployment benefits, 
eliminating the guarantee of Federal payments for temporary extended 
unemployment benefits, on July 6.
  It is kind of a cruel hoax to call a plan that cuts aid to working 
people a jobs bill. It enables States to divert more than $32 billion 
in Federal unemployment funds that is intended for unemployment 
benefits into block grants that can be used to cut taxes for 
businesses, pay off State's debts, or backfill their own State 
unemployment funds, but not necessarily to pay out benefits to those on 
the unemployment rolls. In fact, it grants some States permanent 
waivers to divert future unemployment funds from the people they were 
intended to help.
  Our unemployment rate has gone from 10.6 percent when President Obama 
took office to 9 percent, but it is still too high. We ought to be in 
the business of creating new jobs and not forcing breadwinners to 
foreclose on their mortgages and to default on their loans, but to 
provide for their families. That's the congressional agenda that we 
ought to be about.

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