[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 197 (Tuesday, December 20, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H10002]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     GED FOR UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS

  (Mr. CLYBURN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, we often talk about poison pills, and I 
don't know that all of the American people really understand what we're 
talking about. I want the American people to know that this 1-year bill 
that the House Republicans seemed to be in love with had some poison 
pills in it. One of them cut 40 weeks off of unemployment insurance. 
That's what they want us to agree to.
  But another one, and the one I think is most egregious, said to those 
people applying for unemployment insurance that you must pass the GED 
in order to get unemployment insurance. We would say to a Vietnam 
veteran who is a master electrician, who went off to fight a war, never 
finished high school, but now that you are unemployed with all your 
skills, because you don't have a high school diploma or a GED, you must 
take a GED in order to get your unemployment insurance. That is not 
only a poison pill; that is insulting and egregious.

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