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




                      EXTEND UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS

  (Ms. HOOLEY of Oregon asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. HOOLEY of Oregon. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing a petition 
to force a vote on legislation to extend unemployment benefits as a 
triage effort to tide people over until we address the underlying 
problem behind high unemployment rates: the U.S. economy's job losses.
  This country has lost 3.2 million private sector jobs in the last 3 
years. It is not that Americans are not looking for work, it is that 
the jobs are just not there.
  In addition to providing a safety net to individuals, we need to 
focus on creating an environment allowing the private sector to grow 
and create these desperately needed jobs. Not only do unemployment 
benefits provide a level of security to families, unemployment benefits 
also help stimulate our local economies. When people do not have 
spending power, businesses hurt.
  Last week 11,000 Oregonians exhausted their benefits, and that number 
is going to continue to grow unless this Congress acts. This deprives 
our State's local economy of $3 million every week in stimulus. 
Unemployment benefits are intended as a safety net to bridge people 
from one job to the next. I urge my colleagues to join me in signing 
this discharge petition.

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