[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 95 (Friday, June 28, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E989]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




FEDERAL UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE BENEFITS: 4 MILLION MORE REASONS TO END 
                             THE SEQUESTER

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 27, 2013

  Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, like many of my colleagues, I am hearing 
from constituents who are looking but unable to find jobs, and who are 
now faced with cuts to their Federal unemployment insurance (UI) 
benefits because of the sequester.
  These are people like Janice in Chicago, who last month wrote me, 
``Yesterday, I received an email from the Illinois Department of 
Employment Security stating that starting in June and through the month 
of September, my unemployment benefits will be reduced by 16.8%'' 
because of the budget sequester.
  Or Mary in Arlington Heights, who emailed me, ``I am currently 
unemployed. These cuts will cost me $200 a month. This is a lot of 
money for a single woman living on her own. These effects are real. 
They're more than just numbers on a piece of paper.''
  Mary is right--the effects of the sequester are happening to real 
people--people like her and Janice and their families. The Department 
of Labor estimates that by October 1, as many as 3.8 million unemployed 
workers could see reductions in their federal Emergency Unemployment 
Compensation benefits as a result of the sequester.
  For these families, the sequester means that they will have less 
money available to pay their mortgage or rent, doctor's and grocery 
bills. UI cuts ripple out into local communities, since unemployed 
workers will spend less on goods and services. Experts tell us that a 
$1 spent on UI benefits results in higher consumer spending and 
increased economic activity of between $1.50 and $2.00--so a $1 cut 
from UI benefits means an even greater loss in the effort to strengthen 
local economies. As Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics 
says, ``if you cut unemployment insurance, then the economic impact is 
outsized.'' (``Unemployment Benefit Cut Adds to Drag on U.S. Spending: 
Economy,'' Bloomberg News, May 6, 2013.)
  The National Employment Law Project has released an excellent 
analysis, ``The Sequester's Devastating Impact on Families of 
Unemployed Workers and the Struggling Unemployment Insurance System.'' 
It estimates that, if the sequester continues for the rest of FY2013, 
federal EUC benefits could be cut by more than $2.3 billion--an average 
of more than $400 per family.
  The NELP analysis also points out that the sequester's impacts do not 
stop at federal UI cuts--they also mean cuts to the training, job 
matching and reemployment initiatives designed to help unemployed 
workers get back to work. Those cuts, too, impose real harm on families 
and our economy by making it harder for unemployed men and women to get 
back into the workforce.
  I am a cosponsor of H.R. 900, the Cancel the Sequester Act, because 
it will stop these very harmful cuts to Federal UI benefits and job 
creation efforts. I urge my colleagues to come together now so that we 
can stop these across-the-board, meat-ax sequester cuts that are so 
damaging to our constituents.

                          ____________________