[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 169]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 ON EXTENSION OF UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS

  (Ms. SOLIS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. SOLIS. Mr. Speaker, I say good morning to our fellow Americans 
and to the public who are watching us as we begin to draw our attention 
now to something that has been ailing our economy, and that is a 
discussion of unemployment. It is about time, Members, that we start 
addressing this issue. When we left this House almost a month ago, we 
forgot about the 800,000 workers that right after Christmas were given 
a Christmas gift: they were given no unemployment insurance. Their 
families are suffering. We are here today now to talk about what we can 
do to improve upon that.
  In the State that I represent, one of the largest, California, we saw 
well over 1.3 million people out of work. This recession that hit our 
area began in March of 2001. We need to help all workers, especially 
families.
  This past month, I had the opportunity to visit several of our 
shelters and food pantries and saw something that was very surprising, 
children now, small children, 3 and 2 years old and infants, women that 
just lost their jobs that have no place to go and no food. They are not 
asking for just a handout. They are asking for jobs. They are asking 
for also a replenishment of their unemployment insurance. We have a 
chance now to extend that to 26 weeks.
  Let us support the Democratic alternative. I plan to do that today.

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