[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 26259]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     RELIEF FOR UNEMPLOYED WORKERS

  (Mr. MICHAUD asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MICHAUD. Mr. Speaker, I just signed a discharge petition to 
extend unemployment benefits for dislocated workers across our Nation, 
and I am here to urge my colleagues to do the same. Let me just share 
some of the numbers from the State of Maine. For the past 3 years, 
Maine has lost 22 percent of its manufacturing jobs, 15,500 jobs in 
total, the highest in the Nation.
  Mr. Speaker, where is relief for these workers and their families? 
Too many Mainers are approaching today, tomorrow and the coming days 
without a job, without health care coverage, without adequate food and 
medicine, and without the ability to make ends meet. We cannot turn our 
backs on these workers and their families. We must extend unemployment 
insurance for the people who have exhausted their benefits. Our most 
important job is to help those who cannot find a job.

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