[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 6 (Friday, January 10, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H137-H138]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS EXTENSION

  (Mr. KILMER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KILMER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on the devastating 
loss of unemployment benefits for 1.3 million Americans already and 1.9 
million more at risk of losing benefits if Congress fails to act soon.
  I have heard from constituents across my region who will be impacted 
by this, including a veteran who has been unemployed for 8 months. 
Losing benefits will make it harder for him to complete the training 
program that he is enrolled in with the hopes of finding a new job.
  While our economy has made progress since the depths of recession, we 
still have too many people around this country struggling to find work. 
Congress needs to get focused on job creation, but withdrawing support 
to unemployed people as they seek work is no way to boost this economy.
  In fact, the Council of Economic Advisers estimates that failing to 
extend

[[Page H138]]

unemployment benefits will cost my State, Washington State, nearly 
6,200 jobs. That is worth repeating. Doing nothing will cost us jobs. 
For the sake of middle class families who have lost their jobs through 
no fault of their own, for the sake of the economic recovery, we need 
to extend the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program immediately.

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