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




                              {time}  1230
                  EXPIRATION OF UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS

  (Ms. CHU asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. CHU. Dawn, a single mother of two, spends every day looking for a 
job. After 20 years working in human resources, she was laid off in 
July; and now, the only thing paying her heat and electricity bills, 
the only thing putting food on the table, is her modest unemployment 
benefit.
  In just 35 days and counting, her safety net will be pulled away if 
Congress fails to act. If we don't extend emergency unemployment 
benefits when they expire, by mid-February, 2.1 million Americans will 
have their benefits cut off. And by the end of the year, 6 million will 
be without this critical lifeline.
  Today one out of every 11 Americans is out of work. Congress has 
never allowed unemployment benefits to expire when unemployment was 
this high for this long. We should not start now.

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