Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization

Floor Speech

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I came to the floor this afternoon to speak on behalf of thousands of families in my home State of Washington who stand to lose everything they have because a few Republican Senators continue to put politics ahead of policy. Men and women in my State from Seattle to Spokane, who lost their jobs through no fault of their own, get up every single day; they scour the want ads; they send out their resumes and desperately try to find work in an economy that continues to struggle. These workers do not want to be where they are. They would like nothing more than to be back on the job doing what many of them have been doing for years--working hard and adding value to their companies and contributing to their communities and providing for their families.

But while they struggle to find work, many of them depend on the unemployment insurance programs we put in place to keep their heads above water. This support has allowed these families to put food on the table, to stay in their homes, and to pay for their children's health care. These programs are not extravagant. But for a lot of our workers today, they made all the difference.

Workers such as a woman named Judy Curtis, who lives in Mill Creek, WA, wrote to my office urging us to do everything we could to reauthorize this program. She is a single mom who worked hard her whole life to support herself and her developmentally disabled son Sean. She told me she has been laid off twice since this downturn began and has been looking for a new job every day but without any luck.

Her unemployment insurance is going to be cut off on January 15 unless we reauthorize it. She does not know how she and her son are going to make it if that happens. So it is because of stories like hers that I am so disappointed we are once again throwing families into a state of uncertainty and turmoil by allowing these emergency unemployment programs to expire today. It does not make any sense.

Our economy still has a long way to go on the road to recovery. There are five job seekers for every open position today. The unemployment rate stands at 9.6 percent, and Senate Republicans think now is a good time to cut families off from the support on which they depend? We cannot allow this to happen. We cannot sit on the sidelines while more families are pushed into bankruptcy and lose their health care and their homes are foreclosed on. We cannot stand by and watch as our working families who have already been pushed to the brink by this financial crisis--that they did not create by the way--are now shoved to the edge through no fault of their own. It is wrong and it does not make sense. It does not make sense to pull billions of dollars out of our economy. It does not make sense to remove purchasing power from so many families. And it does not make sense to lose the multiplier effect of these funds that keep millions of workers on the job. It certainly does not make any sense to do this right before the holidays.

I have to say, I find it very interesting that some of the Senators who oppose extending this support for middle-class families are the very same ones who have no problem extending the Bush tax cuts for the richest Americans that will cost us almost $1 trillion. They talk about helping the economy. But economists across the board agree that unemployment insurance programs are one of the best ways to provide a much needed boost. So for those Republicans it is not about the deficit, it is not about what is best for the economy, it is certainly not about good policy, it is about politics, plain and simple.

I am going to keep fighting to maintain these emergency unemployment compensation benefits through next year for Judy Curtis's family, for thousands of families like hers across Washington State, and for millions in America. These programs were not meant to continue indefinitely. But until our economy gets back on track, it would be devastating to cut those families off from this critical lifeline now.

I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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