Emergency Unemployment Compensation Continuation Act

Floor Speech

Emergency Unemployment Compensation Continuation Act

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I rise in strong support of this important legislation to extend unemployment benefits through February 2011.

We must continue to help families who are struggling to make ends meet. While we are continuing to see encouraging signs of economic recovery, the unemployment rate remains too high. If we do not extend emergency unemployment benefits, approximately two million Americans--including 14,600 Marylanders--will lose those benefits by the end of February.

Many Americans remain out of work through no fault of their own. Ending emergency unemployment assistance will not only be devastating for these individuals and their families, but it will also hurt the economy as a whole by undermining consumer confidence and demand. If individuals are unable to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads, the entire economy could slip back into recession. In fact, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office recently found that because unemployment benefits increase consumer demand and spending, previous extensions of unemployment insurance benefits increased both employment and job retention more than what it would have been otherwise in 2009.

The President and Congress have been working together to bring our economy back from the brink. However, there is much more work to do to create jobs and help put Americans back to work.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this much-needed legislation.

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