Commerce, Justice, Science, And Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010--Continued
Floor Speech
COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2010--Continued -- (Senate - October 08, 2009)
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Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I want to support the words of the Senator from New Hampshire and the Senator from Rhode Island about moving the unemployment insurance extension forward.
We all know that joblessness is a tremendous problem in this country. We can argue about which States should get the unemployment benefits and for how much time, but if you are unemployed, your household is 100 percent unemployed. It doesn't matter to you whether you are in a State where it is a 6-percent or a 9-percent or a 12-percent rate. If you have been looking for a job for 26 weeks, you are in trouble and your family is in trouble.
It is hard to believe on an issue such as this, where you would think there would be some comity--you know, I was on one of the TV shows with the Senator from Texas and he agreed unemployment benefits should be extended. We talked about it on that show. Yet we are now holding things up. But people can't wait. They have food to put on the table; they have families to keep together. They have a work ethic. When you can't find a job, try as you might, it eats at you. It is one of the great things about Americans.
I hope my colleagues will reconsider. I hope they will reconsider--yes, because the politics is not on their side here, but more important, because of the substance. We have the worst unemployment we have had over a period of time since World War II, since the Great Depression. We can debate what we should ultimately do. We have to do more, in my opinion, to get this country out of the economic problems in terms of jobs. We do not want to wait 2 or 3 or 4 years for unemployment to gradually come down. We can debate all that. Should there be a second stimulus? Should we do other things? What should we do about highway building? Should we extend the home credit? These are all legitimate considerations we should debate. There will probably be some differences. But in terms of helping those unemployed, the vast majority of whom are unemployed through no fault of their own, I don't think there can be much of a debate. I don't think there will be much of a debate. When it comes to the floor through the good efforts of the Senator from Montana and the Senator from New Hampshire, my guess is it will be overwhelmingly voted on.
Let's not delay. Let's move forward as quickly as we can to help those who, through no fault of their own right now, cannot find a job, try as they might themselves.
I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
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