[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 18]
[Senate]
[Page 24073]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   EXTENSION OF UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, when I think about the debate over 
extending unemployment insurance, some questions come to mind.
  Does anyone in Congress want more American families to lose their 
homes?
  Does anyone in Congress want more American children to go to bed 
hungry?
  Does anyone in the House or Senate want more American families to 
stop paying their heating bills, to delay their credit card payments, 
to skip out on their health care bills?
  Does anybody in the House or Senate want consumer spending to slow 
even further, dragging our economy from recession to something even 
worse?
  Assuming the answer to any of these questions is no, then voting to 
extend unemployment insurance for current job seekers should not be a 
fight, it should be a formality.
  This Chamber approved a massive bailout of the financial industry, 
not because investment bankers might have to forsake that second or 
third Mercedes, not because Wall Street bonuses might drop from eight 
figures to seven figures. We approved that bailout because when credit 
markets freeze, businesses cannot get working capital, and when 
businesses cannot get working capital, Americans lose jobs, and when 
Americans lose jobs, their families suffer, their communities suffer, 
and our Nation suffers.
  It all comes down to Main Street Americans who want to work, who want 
to pay their bills, who want to take care of their families; their 
well-being is tied to the well-being of our economy and our Nation. 
Unemployment insurance is the mechanism by which Americans looking for 
jobs but who have lost their jobs can sustain their families, can keep 
their financial commitments, can afford the tools needed to find a new 
job.
  I have heard too many cases where people could not even fill their 
gas tanks to go out searching for jobs, particularly in rural northwest 
and rural southeast Ohio.
  Extending unemployment insurance is key to getting the economy going. 
It injects dollars into the economy and helps people meet their 
obligations, raise their kids, and do what they need to do in the 
community. It is one of the most important and immediate ways to 
stimulate the economy.
  Relief for financial institutions was intended to prevent massive job 
loss, to stabilize the economy, to stem foreclosures. Extending 
unemployment insurance is intended to promote job growth, to stabilize 
the economy, and to stem foreclosures. It is the smart thing to do. It 
is the right thing to do. It holds one important advantage over the 
financial bailout. The people who benefit directly from an extension of 
unemployment compensation, from an extension of unemployment insurance, 
live on Main Street, with not a single Wall Street CEO in sight.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from California.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. I thank the Chair.
  (The remarks of Mrs. Feinstein pertaining to the introduction of S. 
3685 are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced 
Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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