[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 18427]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           EXTEND UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE AND PAYROLL TAX CUTS

  (Mr. PAYNE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PAYNE. Madam Speaker, I rise today to urge my Republican 
colleagues to move fast and join forces to extend the unemployment 
insurance and payroll tax cuts.
  Now more than ever, most Republicans are content with cutting off the 
unemployment insurance and raising taxes on millions of middle class 
Americans while refusing to raise taxes on the richest 1 percent. The 
unemployment rates for the month of October in my congressional 
district of Union, Essex, and Hudson Counties in New Jersey are between 
nine and 10 percent, which is above the national average. If Congress 
does not act by the end of this year, 2.2 million unemployed workers, 
including my constituents, will lose their unemployment insurance 
benefits by February 2012.
  When times could not get any tougher, Republicans also refuse to 
extend the payroll tax cut holiday enacted earlier this year that gave 
virtually all working Americans a much needed tax cut. Failing to 
extend the payroll tax cut will strip over $120 billion from the 
pockets of consumers. We must act now and extend the unemployment 
insurance and payroll tax cuts.

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