GED for Unemployment Benefits

Floor Speech

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, we often talk about poison pills, and I don't know that all of the American people really understand what we're talking about. I want the American people to know that this 1-year bill that the House Republicans seemed to be in love with had some poison pills in it. One of them cut 40 weeks off of unemployment insurance. That's what they want us to agree to.

But another one, and the one I think is most egregious, said to those people applying for unemployment insurance that you must pass the GED in order to get unemployment insurance. We would say to a Vietnam veteran who is a master electrician, who went off to fight a war, never finished high school, but now that you are unemployed with all your skills, because you don't have a high school diploma or a GED, you must take a GED in order to get your unemployment insurance. That is not only a poison pill; that is insulting and egregious.

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