[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 6409-6410]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         THE MONEY IS THERE FOR EXTENDING UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STRICKLAND. Mr. Speaker, we are going to be leaving Washington, 
D.C. this afternoon and going back to our home districts, and it 
saddens me that we are leaving Washington without extending the 
unemployment benefits that are so desperately needed by so many 
unemployed Americans.
  Just in Ohio alone, since George W. Bush became President of our 
country, we have lost 236,000 jobs, and 170,000 of those jobs have been 
high-wage jobs with good benefits. Across the Nation, some 3 million 
jobs have been lost under the President's watch, making him the first 
President since Herbert Hoover to actually have a net loss of jobs 
during his tenure as President. That makes it all the more troubling to 
me that with so much job loss in our country and so many unemployed 
workers in my State of Ohio, that we would leave Washington, D.C. for 
this extended vacation without extending unemployment benefits to our 
unemployed constituents.
  The fact is that in Ohio alone, already, 31,300 workers have 
exhausted their benefits; and between now and June, this will be 2,200 
workers per week who will have exhausted their unemployment benefits.
  In my region of eastern Ohio in the Steubenville area, 380 workers 
have already exhausted their benefits; and by the end of June, that 
number will swell to 700 workers.
  Mr. Speaker, these statistics are not merely numbers; they represent 
workers. They represent the heads of households. They represent parents 
who need to provide for themselves and their children, to be able to 
contribute to their communities and their churches.
  That is what we are facing in Ohio. It just is amazing to me that in 
light of these circumstances, the President's Treasury Secretary, Mr. 
John Snow, came to Ohio last week and he verbally defended the 
outsourcing, the sending of American jobs to other countries, 
indicating that it strengthens our economy to do so. How can Treasury 
Secretary Snow or President Bush come to Ohio and look unemployed 
people in the eye and tell them that they care about them when they 
deny them these needed resources?
  The money is there, Mr. Speaker. What I am suggesting and calling for 
will not result in an increase in taxes. There are multiple billions of 
dollars in the unemployment fund, money that has been placed there by 
workers and employees for just such a time as this. Yet it seems to me 
that perhaps out of an insensitivity to what is really happening, and 
unawareness of the tragedy of unemployment, or maybe a hardness of 
heart, this House and this administration will not support the 
extension of these benefits. I assume it is because if we extended the 
benefits it would be an admission that we have not solved the problem 
of joblessness in this country. Maybe we do not want to add to the 
accounting that would increase the amount of the deficit. But I want to 
tell my colleagues, the leadership of this House and the President of 
the United States have no hesitancy in increasing the deficit if it is 
necessary in order to give tax breaks to the richest people in this 
country.
  Think of this: here we are leaving Washington, D.C. today, going home 
and knowing that there are thousands and thousands of unemployed 
workers who are, on a weekly basis, exhausting their benefits, and who, 
through no fault of their own, they have lost their jobs.

                              {time}  1415

  But through the resources of this government we can help them. We 
could lessen the pain that they feel. We could make it possible for 
them to continue to provide the needed resources for their families. 
And, yet, we are turning our back on them in their hour of need.
  I hope that when President Bush comes to Ohio for his next visit the 
constituents in Ohio will ask him, Mr. President, why were you 
unwilling to support an extension of unemployment benefits to those who 
are out of work?

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