[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 12818-12819]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              UNEMPLOYMENT

  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I come to the floor, as I have on a 
number of occasions, to urge colleagues to extend unemployment benefits 
for now well over 1 million people who have lost their benefits because 
of the stalling, the filibustering, unfortunately, by colleagues on the 
other side of the aisle.
  I am very appreciative of the fact that we have two Republican 
colleagues joining with us to stop a filibuster, but as the Presiding 
Officer knows, that is not enough. We need one more Member to come 
forward to join us, not to get a majority to pass unemployment 
benefits--we have a majority--but we do not have a supermajority. That 
has now been required on every single issue that has come before the 
Senate in order to try to get things done for the American people.
  When I was home last week--of course I jump on a plane every Friday 
and come back on Monday; I view this as a long distance commute to 
work--I heard over and over concerns from families who have been 
employed all their life, had good middle-class lifestyles, have had the 
ability to take care of their families, have had not only the ability 
to have a home but maybe a cottage or a mobile home to be able to enjoy 
beautiful northern Michigan and the Great Lakes in the summertime, and 
folks who have felt confident they could send their kids to college, 
who literally had the rug pulled out from under them through no fault 
of their own.
  We can go through all that brought us to this point: a decade of 
policies under the previous administration that created huge deficits, 
policies that did not work, making sure that those doing very well in 
this country received tax cuts, but middle-class families were left out 
there on their own; not enforcing trade laws so that more and more of 
our jobs were being shipped overseas.
  That needs to change. And, in fact, it is changing. Despite what this 
President inherited, what we inherited 18 months ago when President 
Obama came into office, 750,000 jobs a month being lost, we have begun 
to turn that around. We are now gaining jobs every month rather than 
losing jobs. But we know there is so much more to do.
  While we are doing that, while we are focused on creating jobs, 
partnering with small businesses and manufacturers to create jobs, we 
have millions of people, over 15 million people, who have been caught 
in this economic tsunami, through no fault of their own. They are 
simply asking that something called unemployment insurance--and, by the 
way, it is insurance. You pay into it when you are working, you receive 
assistance when you are not, But they are asking that we do what every 
other Congress has done, Democratic President, Republican President. 
Anytime we have seen unemployment numbers such as we are seeing today, 
the Congress of the United States has understood and stepped up to 
extend unemployment benefits--except now. In the midst of every other 
initiative being stalled, the folks on the other side of the aisle who 
have been dubbed the party of no have, in fact, been saying no to 
everything, including no to families who are in situations now where it 
is literally about whether they will have a home, whether they can pay 
their bills and put food on the table, whether they can go to school--
as we have all said, we will go back to school and get retraining. 
People are doing that.
  But they are taking that small amount, that $250 or $300 a week, that 
is the difference between their being able to stay in school with a 
roof over their head or having to drop out and not be able to start a 
new career.
  I wish to share a few letters of thousands of letters I have 
received. I am sure the Presiding Officer receives them as well. But 
they represent people who are asking us to stop the politics for 5 
minutes and understand what is happening to people in this country, and 
step up and do the right thing.
  Kim from Bellmont, MI, wrote me:

       Thank you for trying your best to extend unemployment 
     benefits. My husband worked 24 years in a factory and then he 
     was laid off. I have a hair salon I run from my home. We were 
     a happy middle-class family. But now life has been turned 
     upside down, to put it mildly. I now work three jobs. Two are 
     very low paying. I never see my kids or my husband. So darn 
     tired. But I knew with the help of unemployment and my 
     husband applying for a job, and his going to back to school, 
     we could sustain ourselves until something came along.
       Only 6 months have gone by. Now along with his job loss, we 
     will lose our home, which means my business also. I do know 
     you have tried. Please keep trying.

  I will. But what needs to happen is, we need to find at least one 
more Member who will join with us to get beyond this roadblock of a 
filibuster so that Kim doesn't have to lose her home. She can keep her 
business she runs out of her home, her hair salon, and keep things 
going while her husband goes back to school so he can get another job.
  Judith from Taylor wrote me:

       We did not do anything to have this horrible circumstance 
     come our way. Both my husband and I appreciate the work you 
     are doing but please don't give up on us. This week we 
     received notice that our mortgage bank has started 
     foreclosure proceedings on our home. The frustrating thing 
     about this is, we have been trying to sell our house since 
     February of 2009. We have had buyers who were interested [but 
     the] bank stopped proceedings saying they wanted more money 
     out of us. We have been waiting since April for the bank's 
     decision on the present purchase agreement. And the only 
     thing we have gotten from this bank is a letter of 
     foreclosure proceedings this week. Not like we didn't have 
     enough to contend with, our youngest son left from Ft. 
     Campbell, KY to the war in Afghanistan on June 9th. This is a 
     very scary and emotional time for our family. We are 
     definitely on overload but we are just one family of millions 
     who are experiencing how life has changed in this world. We 
     have strong faith in the Lord and a strong belief that life 
     will get better. I love this country but grow weary as to the 
     direction the country is heading. Politics should not play 
     games with the American people's lives.

  That is what is happening right now. I should mention that one of the 
leaders in the Republican caucus has indicated that when it comes to 
extending tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, we should not worry 
about the debt. We should not worry about paying for those. But when it 
comes to helping people who are out of work, then the rules ought to be 
different. When it comes to helping people out of work, then we should 
change the rules that have been in place calling it emergency spending 
and require something different. If 15 million people out of work isn't 
an emergency, I don't know.
  Dawn from Hudsonville writes:

       I listen daily to the radio and I have heard the lack of 
     progress regarding unemployment. I am blessed to have a 
     loving and generous family so my son and I won't be homeless 
     but there will be significant upheaval. My son will graduate 
     from high school next year (if I'm not forced to move) . . . 
     I have done everything I can think of to continue living 
     here; cut expenses to the bone, free lunches for my son, 
     visits to the food pantry--so many things I never thought I 
     would have to do. I realize the scarcity of jobs, my age (51) 
     is a definite factor, but I honestly never imagined the depth 
     of this recession.

  Melvin from Auburn Hills:

       I urge you to please encourage your peers to reconsider 
     their vote. Personally, I am 41 years old, had a job since I 
     was 16, and have never collected unemployment until 2009. 
     During the past 16 months, I returned to school and I am 
     about to take another course. I have taken any opportunity 
     possible to work which has included three jobs that were low 
     paying, part time, or short term, and I don't know what I 
     will do if these extensions stop. I have already moved to 
     Michigan to live with family because I couldn't afford rent 
     in Illinois anymore. However, I will be forced to live under 
     an overpass if I can't even contribute to household expenses 
     during this difficult time in my life. It saddens me that a 
     hardworking person like myself is lumped into a category of 
     ``losers and mooches'' by the attitude of some elected 
     officials, when my lifetime of hard work without ever 
     receiving any unemployment (or any other government 
     assistance) should clearly identify me as a victim of what is 
     the worst economic time in my entire adult life. I want to 
     work and return to a job, and that is why I am doing 
     additional schooling to make myself stand out to potential 
     employers. In the meantime, please help folks like me sustain 
     our modest existence. Please encourage another vote in the 
     Senate to extend unemployment insurance benefits.

  I thank Melvin for working hard and for hanging in there. That is 
what we do in Michigan, we work hard. If we are knocked down, we get 
back up, and we

[[Page 12819]]

go back to work. The people whose letters I have shared this evening 
are people who are working one or two or three part-time jobs trying to 
hold it together. But mom and dad may have both lost their jobs. They 
are trying to hold it together for their families. As Melvin said:

       I don't like being lumped into a category of ``losers and 
     mooches'' by the attitude of some elected officials.

  People in Michigan are not losers. They are not mooches. They are 
people who have been caught in the middle of an economic tsunami. They 
didn't cause it. They weren't the ones who were reckless on Wall Street 
who caused us to lose jobs and lose credit availability and home 
mortgages and pensions and 401(k)s. They were not the ones who made the 
decisions that got us to this point. It is critically important they 
not continue to pay the price.
  I see our distinguished leader on the Senate floor. I thank him for 
his passion and commitment for people who have lost their jobs and his 
commitment as soon as possible to bring this up for a vote one more 
time. But it is very sad that we have had to get to this point where 
over 1 million people have already been hurt losing their unemployment 
benefits and others are just holding their breath about what is going 
to happen. We are committed to continuing to do everything we can until 
we can get this done--extending unemployment benefits and remaining 
laser focused on jobs for the American people. We will continue to do 
that.
  But it would be very nice if somehow one more person from the other 
side of the aisle would step up tonight or tomorrow and we could end 
what has been a nightmare for millions of Americans wondering what is 
going to happen to themselves and their families.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader is recognized.

                          ____________________