[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 11444]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      UNEMPLOYMENT AND THE ECONOMY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. Bishop) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BISHOP of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my 
concern about the 2.1 million workers who will lose their regular 
unemployment insurance during the 6 months after May 31 if we fail to 
do the right thing and act now to extend their benefits.
  I believe we should not only extend benefits, but also improve 
unemployment assistance by increasing the extension of benefits from 13 
weeks to 26 weeks. Acting now to extend and improve unemployment 
benefits will help an estimated 3.9 million workers.
  This past December Congress faced a pending expiration of benefits 
and ran into an unfortunate and completely avoidable situation when the 
benefits of unemployed workers were allowed to expire for a week. This 
time we have the opportunity to act now and to do the right thing to 
help workers who are unemployed.
  There are workers on Long Island in the area I represent who 
desperately want to work, but for whom jobs simply are not available. 
Everywhere I go in my district I hear from workers who are out of work 
or who fear that they will soon be out of a job. These are very real 
concerns to people on Long Island and nationwide.
  Our country faces a serious crisis. We have Americans who want to 
work and who are actively seeking work, but are unable to secure 
employment and are worried about putting food on their dinner tables. I 
believe that extending unemployment insurance to these workers will not 
only provide working families with relief, but will also serve as an 
immediate and much-needed stimulus to our economy.
  New York State has been particularly hard hit by the ongoing economic 
downturn. During the past month alone New York has lost 10,300 jobs, 
and since the end of 2001, our State has suffered from a loss of an 
estimated 301,000 jobs.
  Nationwide the unemployment numbers are staggering. Our unemployment 
rate is at 6 percent, and there are 8.8 million unemployed Americans. 
Of this number, 1.9 million Americans have been unemployed for more 
than 27 weeks. In addition to these numbers, there are approximately 
4\1/2\ million workers who are working part time because they are 
unable to find full-time employment.
  If we want to find real economic stimulus, we should readjust our 
priorities and provide a helping hand to those who are out of a job 
rather than provide yet another fiscally irresponsible tax break to 
this Nation's wealthiest citizens as we just did this past Friday. We 
should do right by our workers and act to stimulate the economy by 
putting a little extra money in the pockets of working families.
  We should contrast how the tax bill went through this Congress. It 
raced through this Congress, and yet we are taking our time providing 
relief and comfort to the millions of unemployed workers. That is not 
fair, and we need to address that.
  The tax cut was presented as an economic stimulus package, and yet 
studies have shown that for every dollar we invest in extending 
unemployment benefits, our economy would receive a $1.73 boost. This 
boost is real, and the impact would be felt immediately.
  I urge my colleagues to take this important step to extend and 
improve unemployment benefits. American workers provide the engine that 
drives our economy, and we have the best workforce in the world. By 
helping workers out now when they need it the most, we will reap a huge 
return in our investment.

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