Unemployment Compensation Extension Act Of 2009--Motion To Proceed
Floor Speech
UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION EXTENSION ACT OF 2009--MOTION TO PROCEED -- (Senate - October 28, 2009)
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Mrs. SHAHEEN. Thank you, Madam President. I wish to thank Senator Dodd from Connecticut for his kind words and for all of the work he has done to try and move an unemployment extension for people, and for his eloquence in talking about the need to help those people who are currently running out of their benefits. As is the Senator from Connecticut, I am here one more time to voice my support for the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act.
I am pleased, as the Senator from Connecticut is, that yesterday the Senate voted by an overwhelming majority to move this legislation forward. But like the Senator from Connecticut, I remain very disappointed that even with 87 votes to move forward, we are still here today. Another day has gone by, a day when 7,000 more workers have lost their benefits, and the opponents of this extension are still playing politics to hold up the help that so many people around the country need.
During the delay of the past 3 weeks, more than 100,000 Americans have exhausted their unemployment benefits. Without this extension, nearly 2 million jobless workers will lose their benefits by the end of the year. The American people should be outraged by this continued delay.
I would like to read an e-mail I got this morning from Jane McDermott from Stoddard, NH. Jane has been unemployed for over a year, and she will
exhaust her remaining benefits in the next 2 weeks. She writes:
Right now, receiving unemployment means I can eat and I can pay for my medication. Those of us who are still unemployed still have bills and property taxes to pay. With the rug being pulled out from under us, it means being on the edge of homelessness.
She writes to me:
I urge you to make this fight a priority. Here in New Hampshire there are many, including myself, who depend on having heat, lights, and even enough gas in our cars to search for employment each and every day, especially over the holidays.
She signs her e-mail: Sincerely, Jane McDermott from Stoddard.
Jane McDermott is out looking for work every day, but with more than six people out of work for every job opening, she hasn't been able to find that new job. She is like millions of hard-working Americans from every community and every State and every part of our country. This is just one out of dozens of calls and e-mails my office gets every single day.
So I urge my colleagues to stop playing politics and to pass this extension. It is the right thing to do for our unemployed workers, and it is the right thing to do to stimulate our economy. Let's not let one more day go by without extending unemployment benefits for the tens of thousands who need them all across this country.
Madam President, I yield the floor.
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