Emergency Unemployment Compensation Extension Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. President, I came to the floor because later today the Senate will vote on a short-term extension of emergency unemployment benefits for thousands of citizens in New Hampshire--hundreds of thousands; really over 1 million throughout the country--who are being hurt right now by our failure to act to extend unemployment benefits.

I have heard from a number of New Hampshire constituents since the unemployment insurance extension expired back in December. They make the case much more eloquently than I can about why we need to extend these unemployment benefits. I will read some excerpts from some of those letters.

One of my constituents is a 62-year-old woman from Windham, and she explained that despite her best efforts she will be one of the many long-term unemployed without any unemployment benefits if she doesn't find a job by March. She began working at age 8 delivering papers with her brother. She put herself through college and earned a master's degree with the help of her employer. She wrote:

I am not too proud to do any honest job. I am losing my house and can't afford to pay my mortgage any longer. There are so many of us out there.

Another woman from Windham wrote to me. She is 55 years old. She has held a job since she was 16. Last August, she was laid off in a merger. She has been actively seeking a job in her field, which is health care. She explained that her unemployment check has helped her pay for her essential living expenses. She and her sister take care of their 90-year-old parents in their home, and this income is critical not just to her livelihood but to the care of her parents.

Then we heard from a 58-year-old woman from Merrimack who learned she lost her job in May of 2013 and has had nine interviews but no offers. Without unemployment assistance, she will not be able to afford her car payment, her mortgage, food or utilities.

A constituent wrote to me explaining that after 29 years as a teacher, that teaching job has been eliminated. She has been on unemployment since June. She has applied for nearly 100 jobs. Think about just getting up every day, trying to figure out where you can apply to just have a shot at getting back to work. Her savings are exhausted. She is on the verge of losing her house since her unemployment benefits--her only source of income--have expired. She wrote:

This seems unfair to me. Having worked hard and been a taxpayer into the system all my working life, I fail to see how not extending benefits will be beneficial to me and the 1.3 million other Americans, especially in light of an already fragile economy. Please do your best to remember those of us who never planned to have to depend on unemployment for this long, but who have fallen victims to these times.

Then I did a tele-townhall conference on Monday night. I heard from thousands of people across New Hampshire. One of the people I heard from was a woman named Kathy from Danbury. She told me she had worked since she was 14 and she is now out of a job. Her unemployment benefits have expired and she doesn't know what she is going to do.

We need to think about Kathy and all of the people whom we are hearing from in our offices. We are supposed to represent the people who need help across this country. My constituents are exactly right. We are threatening the fragile economic recovery by failing to extend unemployment insurance.

The Economic Policy Institute estimates that the expiration of unemployment insurance is going to cost the economy an additional 310,000 jobs. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that each dollar we spend on extending unemployment insurance generates about $1.50 in economic growth. We learned this week that failing to act has already drained more $2.2 billion from the economy, including $1.8 million from New Hampshire, not to mention all of the people whose personal stories are tragic because they want to work, they are out of a job through no fault of their own, and we need to provide them some assistance while they try and get back on their feet, so they do not lose their homes, so they do not lose their cars, so they can put food on their tables.

I urge my colleagues to come together today. It is time for us to act, to support an extension of unemployment insurance. I certainly hope we are going to do that.

I yield the floor.

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