[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 76 (Tuesday, May 20, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H4484-H4485]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             EXTEND EMERGENCY UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE TODAY

  (Mr. YARMUTH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, it has now been more than 4 months since 
Congress let emergency unemployment insurance expire. In that time, 
more than 2.8 million job seekers, including 200,000 veterans, have 
lost the ability to provide for their families. Another 72,000 
Americans are losing critical unemployment benefits every week.
  Let's be clear: these are people actively looking for work who lost 
their jobs through no fault of their own. Both are requirements for 
receiving

[[Page H4485]]

unemployment insurance. But by failing to extend emergency insurance, 
we are creating a new disaster on top of the hardships already facing 
millions of American families, and we are damaging our economy.
  During just the first week that emergency unemployment insurance 
expired, our economy took a $400 million hit. Failure to extend that 
insurance could cost us 240,000 jobs this year due to lost buying 
power, exacerbating the difficulty for current job seekers and adding 
more to their ranks.
  Mr. Speaker, this is not smart policy. It is coldhearted and 
shortsighted, and I urge my colleagues to join me in demanding a vote 
to extend emergency unemployment insurance today.

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