[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Page 23325]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE EXTENSION

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I come to the floor to make one final 
plea with regard to unemployment compensation. It is important to 
remember what the Senate has done as we reflect back over the last many 
months in our efforts to deal with this issue.
  We offered an amendment that was sponsored by our departed, 
distinguished Senator Paul Wellstone. That legislation was the same as 
legislation that Congress passed when the first President Bush was in 
office in the early 1990s. We tried to pass it. Unfortunately, it was 
blocked by our Republican colleagues on eight different occasions.
  Again, let me repeat. That was what we had in place when the first 
Bush administration was in office. Unemployment benefits that were 
actually extended three times when President Bush Sr. was in office.
  The Senate then took up a bipartisan compromise to extend benefits 
for just 3 months. Republicans and Democrats got together. On the 14th 
of November we passed a simple extension for 3 months. Once again, the 
House refused to act.
  So we took what was originally acceptable to the senior Bush 
administration, and that didn't work with the House. Then we passed 
what worked on both sides of the aisle here in the Senate for a simple 
3-month extension, and that too didn't work for the House.
  Over the course of the last 48 hours, we have been involved with 
House leadership, asking if there was any possible compromise, any way 
that we could extend it for 2 months, 1 month, any way that somehow we 
could send a message to the almost one million people who will lose 
their benefits on the 28th of December and to the 95,000 people who 
will lose them each week following the 28th of December. Hundreds of 
thousands of people, ironically, right over the Christmas holidays will 
lose any opportunity to provide for their familiar with unemployment 
insurance.
  I must say I am disappointed to announce to my colleagues that once 
again our House Republicans said no.
  I have to say that I think it is a story right out of Charles 
Dickens. I can't imagine that under these circumstances, even for a 
month, they couldn't see fit to act. Ebenezer Scrooge had a last-minute 
conversion. I hope that our Republican colleagues in the House will do 
so.
  They are coming back on Friday and the Senate's bipartisan 3-month 
extension is waiting. I would urge the President--I ask President 
Bush--to call on the House Republican leadership to recognize the 
consequences of their inaction and pass our bipartisan unemployment 
extension.
  We were, as I said, prepared to take whatever action necessary. We 
would have stayed in session if we had to to accommodate something that 
the House could have done to extend those benefits for a couple of 
months, which would have allowed us to work out something for a longer 
period of time.
  That is my plea, my hope, recognizing, as I say, that hundreds of 
thousands of people will be affected at the worst possible time of the 
year.
  I again renew that request. I urge the President to act. I urge our 
House colleagues to reconsider.
  Mr. FITZGERALD. Mr. President, I want to call upon the House to act 
on the unemployment insurance compensation relief that we have passed 
in this body. I have been a cosponsor with other Members on this side 
of the aisle, as well as Senators Clinton and Sarbanes on the 
Democratic side.
  I think we need to pass the legislation over in the House which has 
already cleared this body. If we do not, benefits are going to fall off 
the cliff on December 28, as the majority leader stated. I hope the 
House will take up that important legislation and at least extend the 
benefits until we can come back and deal in the new year with this 
issue.

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