Extension of Unemployment Insurance Benefits

Floor Speech

EXTENSION OF UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE BENEFITS -- (Senate - October 20, 2009)

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I thank my colleagues who have come before the Senate on this critical issue, our ability to extend unemployment insurance, and to ask our Republican colleagues not to block our efforts and to allow us to bring up this bill and do it quickly to help the families who are suffering in every one of our States.

This week we have an important opportunity and a need to address a real "kitchen table'' issue for families all across this country. We have an opportunity and a responsibility to pass an extension of unemployment insurance and, in doing so, to provide a measure of financial stability to millions of Americans who have been laid off in the most difficult economic times since the Great Depression. We have the opportunity and the responsibility to provide peace of mind to families who are left without a job and nowhere else to turn and are so concerned about their future, families who, right now, as we debate our ability to bring this bill to the floor of the Senate, are having a much more agonizing debate about how to make next month's rent or even next week's grocery budget if their unemployment runs out.

For these families, this bill Senator Baucus has worked so hard on to bring to the floor helps them out. What this bill does is extend the unemployment to laid-off workers in States that have been hardest hit by job losses by 6 weeks, and it provides every single unemployed worker who has exhausted his or her benefits, regardless of the State in which they live, an additional 14 weeks of support. It makes some critical changes to help our families. It makes clear that the additional $25 per week in benefits that Congress included in the Recovery Act does not count against someone who is seeking food stamps.

This bill could not come at a more critical time. This month, we have seen banner headlines in newspapers all across the country that make a very stark point about the tough climate our laid-off workers face today. In my home State of Washington, unemployment has now risen to 9.3 percent. That number alone does not illustrate the need to provide immediate relief. Even with the robust recovery program that has saved and created jobs throughout my State, our workers are feeling the very sharp effects of this recession.

Since this recession began in December of 2007, there have been over 145,000 jobs lost in my State. That means 1 in 20 jobs in Washington State has been lost. These unemployed workers are searching for an average of 6 1/2 months before they find a job. While those statistics clearly point out the need for this legislation, the stories behind these statistics provide even more of a call to action--stories of single mothers who are scanning the classifieds every morning and then having to search through coupons each night to afford to feed their family dinner; stories of skilled workers, with many years of education and the debt that comes with that, facing stacks of unpaid bills; stories such as those that over the past few weeks, as unemployment benefits have become exhausted for millions of workers, have poured into my Senate offices, stories such as the one of Wane Ryan of Bonney Lake, WA, who shared it with me.

Mr. Ryan says he is a carpenter, with 23 years of experience, who has been looking for work for more than a year. In his letter, Mr. Ryan tells of recently selling all his personal belongings, relying on food banks, and being on the verge of financial ruin, through no fault of his own. He wrote me to ask for another emergency unemployment extension just to keep his head above water.

There is Kristina Cruz, from Seattle, who received her last unemployment check just a few weeks ago. Kristina told me she has been unemployed now for 20 months, after spending 10 years in human resources. She talks of going above and beyond in her job search, a skill she picked up as her career. But still, she said, interviews have been few and far between. She told me she is stressed out and panicked. She says she is not interested in living off the government long term, but in the midst of this economic crisis, she believes we need to pass this extension.

There is the story of Angela Slot and her family from Washougal, WA. Angela's husband designs kitchens and has been out of work since last May. He has returned to school, put out over 1,500 applications in different fields in different States and for every different type of job. Yet today he remains without work.

The Slot family has taken out loans, used all their savings and unemployment payments just to stay in their home and provide for their three children. Without this extension, the Slot family calculates they will not have their home by the end of this year.

For these families and millions more like them, the question that haunts them every single day is what will we do if this support runs out? Where will we go when our savings are exhausted, when the credit card can no longer make ends meet, when the bank will not wait for a mortgage payment any longer? To whom do we turn?

In a time of national crisis, it is our job to make sure we are answering those questions. We can do that by providing a bridge to financial stability for families today. By the end of this year, my State projects that nearly 18,000 people will be in need of these benefits just to keep them afloat.

I, personally, know how important it is to have the government in your corner during financial times. When I was young, my dad had to stop working. He was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. That left my mom at home to support and raise seven kids, as she also took care of my dad. It was a very difficult time for my family. We made a lot of sacrifices to get by. But you know what. Our country was there for us. Through food stamps, VA benefits for my dad, student loans, my family made it through those tough times, and I am here today. That is why I believe strongly that we need to be there now for the millions of Americans who are struggling today.

We cannot sit on the sidelines. Doing so would only compound the problems we already face--more families pushed into bankruptcy, more families who will have foreclosures happen to them, more people will lose their health care, and less progress will be made on this important road to financial recovery. We cannot sit by as working families are pushed to the brink by a financial crisis they did not create but for which they are still paying.

Angela Slot ended her letter to me by saying she felt families such as hers, families who are just scraping by, are ``falling off the radar.'' This unemployment extension bill is our opportunity to prove to her and many others that is not the case. We have not forgotten them. We know they are out there.

I urge our colleagues to listen to the voices of their constituents. I ask our Republican colleagues not to block this effort, not to say no to these families, not to turn a blind eye but to join us in passing an unemployment extension that makes sure America's laid-off workers are not ignored.

I yield the floor.

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