[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Pages 23501-23502]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    EXTENDING UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS

  Mr. REED. Mr. President, I rise in support of a swift extension of 
the unemployment insurance benefits to help jobless people throughout 
this country.
  Last week, we learned that the economy had shed 263,000 jobs in 
September and the unemployment rate increased to 9.8 percent. I grant 
this is a remarkable change since the first of the year when 700,000 
jobs or more were being lost. Still, that is very small comfort to 
those people who are losing their jobs and others who are losing their 
benefits if we fail to act swiftly and extend unemployment benefits for 
additional weeks.
  This is the particular case in my State of Rhode Island. We are 
looking at a 12.8 percent unemployment rate. There are thousands who 
have already exhausted their unemployment benefits, and there are 
another 4,500 who are estimated will lose their benefits before the end 
of the year. This is an extraordinary number of people who

[[Page 23502]]

are out of work, and they are finding incredible difficulty in securing 
jobs.
  I ask that my colleagues come together in support of an extension of 
the unemployment insurance benefits. The House overwhelmingly passed 
this legislation on a bipartisan basis. I have introduced legislation 
here, along with Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
  This is not a partisan issue. The job losses in this country are 
across the Nation. They are affecting working families and people who 
have spent their whole lives working hard, and now they face a huge 
crisis--without a job--and they are facing uncertainty in the future, 
health care issues, tuition for college, and those things families 
struggle with every day.
  In addition, unemployment insurance is one of those features of 
support that actually increases demand, accelerates the economy. The 
effect of unemployment insurance for each dollar is more than a dollar 
of economic activity generated. At this time, we are trying to jump-
start the economy and move it forward and give it momentum so it 
doesn't falter and fall back. Unemployment insurance provides not only 
individual assistance, but it also assists the economy.
  We are in the most severe economic downswing since the Great 
Depression. We have to go ahead and help people who need it and based 
on their work. That is one of the other values of unemployment 
insurance. These people are our colleagues and friends and neighbors 
who have worked and now they are without work. They desperately want to 
work. In the interim, before they are able to find a job, they need us 
to provide some minimal support and also to ensure that our economy 
continues to move forward.
  I urge all my colleagues to follow the lead of the House so that, on 
a bipartisan basis, we can extend unemployment insurance for millions 
of Americans.
  With that, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. SHELBY. I thank the Chair.

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