Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2010

Floor Speech

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2010 -- (Senate - October 01, 2009)

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Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I join the majority leader and the chairman of the Armed Services Committee to express my appreciation to colleagues who will support the provisions for Federal assistance for high-need States. Rhode Island is one of those high-need States.

One of the key targets to being a high-need State is a high unemployment rate. Right now, ours in Rhode Island is about 12.8 percent--nearly 13 percent. Since the beginning of this crisis, we have either been the second or third highest unemployment State in the Nation, only behind Senator Levin's State of Michigan. It is the highest level of unemployment Rhode Island has seen since World War II, in a generation. It amounts to, in our very small State with a population of fewer than 1 million people, 73,000 people who are unemployed. That is only counting the ones who qualify as unemployed under the labor standards; for people out too long, they are even more. After a while, they don't count them any longer in the statistics. It is actually more than 73,000 people unemployed in a State of less than 1 million; 73,000 families are facing unemployment and are worrying about how to care for their loved ones.

We know this is a national problem, and we know many States are suffering. To be in this category of these four States that are high-need States and that are getting a little extra attention in the Finance bill is not something we want. I would love for Rhode Island to have a 7- or 8-percent unemployment rate. I would be delighted. This is a real trial for the people of Rhode Island, and I appreciate that there are people, including our distinguished majority leader, who are reaching out to try to help Rhode Island while we are in this period of intense economic suffering.

From my perspective, I have supported others when we went to help the States that depended on the auto industry. I have watched billions of dollars flow across this floor to support those big auto States. I have watched and supported billions of dollars flowing across this floor to support the big finance industry States--Wall Street--and to protect our banking industry. I have supported it when billions of dollars flowed across this floor to support coastal States that were hit hard by storms and hurricanes. I watched billions of dollars flow through here for the States hit by flooding recently with the terrible floods in the South and a little while ago when the terrible floods hit the upper Northwest. I have watched enormous support go to States when they experienced wildfires, and when our distinguished leader on the Budget Committee, Senator Conrad, argued so effectively for the States affected by drought.

I am on the Environment and Public Works Committee. The coal States are getting taken care of in amazing ways. Over and over again, when we have seen our fellow States in trouble, we have been willing to help them out. All I am asking is, from Rhode Island's perspective, we have watched all of these things go by, and there is yet to be anything for Rhode Island.

I hope very much that my colleagues will not take this opportunity to turn what has been a very collegial atmosphere about helping each other's States when they are in trouble and, for purposes of politics, pile onto little Rhode Island. This is something that we need. This is something that is important to us.

Do we depend on coal? No. Do we depend on the auto insurance industry? No. Do we depend on Wall Street? No. Have we had a big hurricane? No. Nor have we had flooding, wildfires, or drought. But the condition of our people, economically, is just as bad as if those things had occurred.

Rhode Island is at nearly 13 percent unemployment. I urge my colleagues to stand with the leader and with the tradition of kindness and collegiality that has always characterized this body when a State is experiencing particular distress and difficulty.

I yield the floor.

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