Extend Unemployment Benefits

Floor Speech

Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, it is just wrong. It is wrong that we have 2.8 million hardworking Americans who have lost their jobs and are looking every day for their next job.

They stand to lose everything that they have worked for, and this Congress has within its power the ability to act to save them from losing decades of hard work, losing their house, losing their car, losing the roof over their head; but this Congress fails to bring up a bill that has passed the Senate, that the President would sign, that would extend unemployment benefits to 2.8 million Americans who work hard every day.

There is one reason that this Congress has failed to act, and it is because the Speaker and the Republican leadership will not bring this bill to the floor.

This bill would not increase the deficit. It is paid for, but it would end the misery and the suffering of so many hardworking people who get up every day, wondering if today is the day that the foreclosure notice will come, if today is the day that the car will be repossessed.

We are all Americans. We have always stood together. We have always helped one another when times are tough. For 2.8 million people, times are tough.

Congress needs to act. I call on this House to bring up H.R. 4415. Let's do this now.

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