[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 42 (Thursday, March 13, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H2371-H2372]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE

  (Mr. KILDEE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, on December 28, emergency unemployment 
benefits for Americans were cut off; and since then, 2 million 
Americans have lost their essential lifeline and have been missing 
their rent payments, missing their mortgage payments, trying to keep 
the house warm and put

[[Page H2372]]

food on the table. Congress has failed to act.
  What is particularly concerning to me is some of the rhetoric that I 
hear would imply that those unemployed Americans are seeking benefits 
because they don't want to work. And, in fact, yesterday, I read a 
quote from the Budget Committee chairman--and I will try to get this 
correct--saying that, in America, there is a culture in our inner 
cities of men not even thinking about working or learning the value and 
the culture of work.
  That is not the problem. The problem is a lack of opportunity. So I 
will take the chairman at his word that he was intending to say: so, 
therefore, we need to fully fund after-school programs, we need to 
fully fund pre-K programs, and we need to fully fund summer youth 
employment so that those young people do have a chance to experience 
the benefit and value of work, and that we provide a safety net to make 
sure that when they are not working, they don't lose their house, their 
car, and their family.

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