Emergency Unemployment Benefits

Floor Speech

Madam Speaker, it has been more than 3 weeks since Congress left for a December recess, leaving far too many Americans, including thousands of Oregonians, without access to emergency unemployment benefits.

That is a long time for our constituents who are trying to pay their rent, purchase groceries, care for their families, and fill their cars with gas so they can get to job interviews. Now we are planning to leave town again tomorrow for 10 days without addressing this urgent need.

My constituents are contacting me, pleading with Congress to understand the challenges they face in this recovering economy. I heard from a college graduate. She previously owned her own business but lost her job in May. Since then, she has been retraining to get the skills she will need. She is ready and willing to work in a new industry. Unemployment benefits, which she is now without, were helping. She is one of too many.

Madam Speaker, we must extend emergency unemployment benefits, and we need to do it now. Our constituents can't wait any longer.

Source