Let me thank my colleague from Illinois for yielding time and make clear that I want to vote for a bill that extends unemployment benefits to those who have been laid off in areas where we have high unemployment. But the bill before us is not targeted at states where we’ve seen a spike in unemployment. We’ve got an unemployment rate in Oklahoma, as an example, of about 2.6 percent or maybe you could go to, I think it’s South Dakota, where the unemployment rate is about 2.4 percent. Yet, under this bill, it’s a federal mandate – one-size-fits-all for all 50 states. And I just think that if we’re going to be serious about spending taxpayer money, we ought to target that money to those areas where we have high unemployment and where people need our help.Click HERE for Full Video (WMV).
“The bill also eliminates the requirement that individuals put in at least 20 weeks of work to collect extended unemployment benefits. And when this was put into the law, when we extended this law in 2002, almost all the Democrat members voted to do this. And what it means is that some people could work as little as two weeks, two weeks, and receive up to 52 weeks of unemployment benefits and I don’t think that’s neither reasonable nor is it a good use of limited taxpayer resources.
“I’m open to extending unemployment benefits, but I think this bill that we have before us falls far short of what we need to do. It’s neither fair to unemployed workers who truly need our help, nor to taxpayers who are going to fund it. I think we can do better and before we send the final version of this bill to the President, I hope that we will do better. And I hope we will work in a bipartisan way to come to an agreement, to extend unemployment benefits in a reasonable, responsible way. But in the meantime, this bill is not the answer and I would urge my colleagues to vote no.”
UPDATE: AP News Alert:
WASHINGTON (AP) House defeats bill to extend unemployment benefits for Americans who can't find a job.As usual, the AP puts their uber-liberal spin on it...
