Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2010--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished Senator from Michigan for her eloquent words that try to bring into this institution some of the difficulties and anxiety and pain families in our States particularly are feeling. Because while the national unemployment rate is at an atrocious above 9 percent, in our States it is considerably worse. In Rhode Island the unemployment rate hovers still around 12 percent. This has been a prolonged recession. For many Rhode Islanders, they have been out of work for as long as unemployment insurance benefits allow. Now they are coming to the end of the 99-week period under which they are allowed to recover. The plain, unvarnished fact is that the jobs aren't there. In a different economy, I might be less impatient with the argument that we have to cut off unemployment benefits on folks because, frankly, after a while they get lazy. And if we don't cut off the benefits, then they will wait around, collecting their unemployment, goofing off and not going back to work. That is the argument I hear made against this all too often.

When one is in a State where the jobs simply are not there, where the economy has not come close to recovering, then it is not logical, and it is heartless and wrong. There are now more than 65,000 Rhode Islanders out looking for work. By contrast, the economic recovery bill created 11,000 jobs in Rhode Island. It would be far worse were it not for the action we took. But when we compare 11,000 families who now have jobs and paychecks because of the Recovery Act to the 65,000 still wondering when is this economy coming back for me, clearly we have a lot of work to do. To extend unemployment benefits for those who have run it through is the least we can do.

I remember visiting not too long ago Network Rhode Island, a job placement agency in Pawtucket and speaking to a married couple, a middle-age married couple sitting side by side at one of the computer screens looking for something. They come in to look every day. They have filed hundreds of applications for jobs. They have been unable to find anything because of the job market. They said: We are anxious. We are running out of our benefits. This was one of those occasions when the Republicans had filibustered extending unemployment benefits, adding additional funding. I assured them that when we got back we would be restoring those benefits, and we would be protecting them because we had that commitment and we had that determination. They said: No, you can't help us. We are in the 99ers. We have come to the end of the duration for which you are allowed to collect unemployment benefits.

I felt helpless, that there was nothing we were doing for them. Senator Stabenow and I discussed this problem. She filed this wonderful legislation, of which I was an immediate cosponsor. It addresses a problem that at least in our States is very real.

Two of the Rhode Islanders who have written to us and contacted me about this have let me use their images. Just so we are not always talking about heartless, bloodless statistics on the floor, 12 percent, 65,000, there are real people behind those statistics. There are real families. There are those terrible late nights at the kitchen table trying to figure out how you keep the mortgage, how you keep the health insurance, what you cut, what you give up. Those are discussions that are being had by real families.

This is Michael Coppola. He lives in Smithfield. He was a truckdriver for the same company from 2000 to 2007. He was laid off in October of 2008 when his unit closed. This month Michael hits the current 99-week limit for unemployment insurance benefits. He has had to give up health insurance. He is trying to keep up with his mortgage payments so he doesn't lose his house and add to the tide of foreclosures sweeping across Rhode Island and the rest of the country. His wife is totally disabled. As a result, she receives Social Security benefits and that is helping them keep the family together. But he wrote me to say:

Any extension of benefits for people like me who have exhausted their benefits would help allow me to stay in my house, pay my taxes, and [allow me] to regain my health coverage.

Michael actually took this picture for us so we could have a picture here to show on the floor and put a human face on this problem that is so often drowned in statistics.

Here is another Rhode Islander from Portsmouth. This is Nancy Babcock. Nancy is 59 years old. She lost her job about 24 months ago. She had worked for 15 years steadily in the insurance industry. Next week she hits her 99-week limit. She has been able to find a little bit of part-time work, but it has not been enough to pay her bills and keep her finances afloat. Rhode Island's WorkShare program has permitted her to supplement her unemployment insurance benefits with a small amount of part-time income. This is a woman who has worked essentially all her life, who while on unemployment insurance has tried to find what work she could find and was permitted and has continued to look for work. She has a bachelor's degree. She has several industry certifications. She has extensive background in sales and marketing. Despite the long drought of unemployment she has had to live through, so many Rhode Islanders have had to live through, she is still out there every day looking for work, hoping the economy will turn for her. She has been going through the classifieds, beating her feet against the pavement trying to get to places where she might get an interview. She has been reaching out to friends, doing all the things that families do in this circumstance, trying to reach out wherever she can, and still, after 99 weeks, to no avail.

I thank Senator Stabenow for her leadership. In a better world, this would be an easy thing and the unanimous consent to allow us to go to this bill and extend these unemployment insurance benefits would be uncontroversial. It should be clear to anybody that these people have lost their jobs and have been out of work for this lengthy period through no fault of their own. Michael was not fired for cause. Nancy didn't lose her job because she did something wrong. The people who did something wrong were in Wall Street, with the Securities and Exchange Commission, creating phony baloney securitization of home mortgages. Most of them got bailed out. The banks are back rolling, firing off the big bonuses, reporting huge earnings, not loaning much money yet but taking care of their folks, rolling in the paychecks and the bonus checks. They are back on their feet again. But for the people who got clobbered by the tsunami of economic catastrophe that the Wall Street implosion and the housing implosion set off, they are still being washed around. Nobody has bailed them out.

Let's extend the unemployment insurance they have been contributing to, that they are a part of. Let's help our fellow Americans weather this unique financial storm.

I yield the floor.

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