[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 18 (Friday, February 3, 2012)]
[House]
[Page H444]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS

  (Mr. BUTTERFIELD asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in complete disgust of the 
Republican conferees' attempt to include an education requirement as a 
condition of receiving unemployment benefits.
  To require people who would otherwise be eligible for benefits to now 
either have a high school diploma or be enrolled in a GED program is 
discriminatory. It is despicable.
  Adding conditions to receiving compensation does nothing to create 
jobs or address the real causes of unemployment. It is a difficult 
time, Mr. Speaker, to be unemployed in America, but Republicans seem 
determined to make it even more difficult by kicking the unemployed 
while they're down.
  With less than a month to craft a long-term tax measure, I urge 
Republican conferees to stop obstructing the process by insisting on 
distracting proposals that are only meant to score political points.
  I am opposed to any education requirement to receive unemployment 
benefits. I implore my colleagues to do the same.

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