Date: 1982-05-21
Speaker: ROBERT C. BYRD (democrat)
Chamber: S

Madam President. I will shortly send to the desk an amendment for the purpose of adding sufficient funds to the budget resolution in the income security function to enable the operation of the Federal supplemental unemployment compensation program. This will involve adding $337 million in both budget authority and outlays to function 600 for the current fiscal year. $627. million in both budget authority and outlays for fiscal year 1983. and $111 million in both authority and outlays for fiscal year 1984. Madam President. earlier this week I introduced a bill to create such a program of supplemental unemployment compensation. and that bill was joined by 21 original cosponsors. I did so in the belief. ana it is a belief that I am confident is shared by the other cosponsors. that we are currently in a crisis in this country. We find ourselves today in the grip of a most severe and damanging recession that we have experienced since the Great Depression and virtually every day the economic news is more depressing than the day before. Despite consistently rosy pronouncements that we are bottoming out or that we are now rising from the trough. the business failures mount and industrial output continues to decline. but the single most distressing impact of the recession has been and it continues to be on working men and women and their families. A little over a week ago. headlines in papers across the Nation announced the tragic news. The Washington Post headline read "Unemployment Worst Since Great Depression." The New York Times headline read "Jobless Rate Rises to 9.4 Percent. A Record in Postwar Years." The details contained in the stories beneath those headlines were equally shocking. Over 10.300.000 people were jobless in April. an increase of 450.000 over the previous nionth: 5.8 million men and women were forced to work less than full time In April because they could not find fulltime jobs. Not counted in the previous two categories were more than 1.3 million people who have been unable to find work for so long that they have ceased looking for work. The April seasonally adjusted unemployment rate -.as 9.4 percent. the highest since the Department of Labor began keeping monthly records just after World War II and higher than any annual unemployment rate before that time since 1941. This was the national picture. But for many Americans and for many specific sections of the Nation. the picture was even bleaker. The unemployment. rate in the construction industry was 19.4 percent. The unemployment rate among agricultural workers was 14.6 percent. In the State of West Virginia the unemployment rate was 11.3 percent. In Michigan 15 percent of the work force was unemployed. Some cities and towns reported unemployment rates well over 20 percent. These unemployment statistics only scratched the surface of the personal tragedy that those statistics represent. When a pcrson loses his or her job. unemployment insurance usually is available to help cushion the fall for a while. in most States for a maximum of 26 weeks. Experience has shown that this is sufficient. on the average. to provide help during the time it takes those who have lost their jobs to find other work. During periods of relatively brief and shallow recessions. when 26 weeks of assistance often is not sufficient. the extended benefits program provides an additional buffer of a maximum of 13 weeks of additional benefits in most States. These two programs are not designed to provide sufficient aid during severe and lengthy periods of recession. Unquestionably these two programs combined fall far short of meeting the needs during what appears to be the most severe recession that this Nation has experienced in the plot 40 years. It only takes a maximum of 39 weeks to exhaust the benefits available under both the regular and the extended benefits program. Yet. many of the workers who have been laid off cannot find a new job during that period. When that happens. the usual course is predictable. First. the families exhaust all of their savings. Then when they have exhausted all of their savings. they are forced to make some very brutal choices between buying food or meeting mortgage or rent payments in order to avoid foreclosures or evictions. It becomes necessary to sell personal possessions at a tremendous loss just to provide a temporary trickle of additional income. Just to hold on a little bit longer. Families forgo every expense that is not absolutely essential. including needed medical care. If the recession persists and they still cannot find work. they finally experience true destitution. They lose their homes. they lose their automobiles. they lose many of their possessions. and. in some cases. they lose their physical and mental health. They lose their selfsufficiency. They lose their hope. they lose their pride. We in the U.S. Senate have an obligation to do eveything in our power to return our economy to stability and to put our people back to work. But. in the meantime. we cannot and we must not sit by and allow millions of Amercans to exhaust all currently available unemployment compensation when there is no realistic possibility thet most of them can find jobs. During each of the past two most serious recessionsand I think this is importantCongress has established an additional tier. a third tier. of unemployment benefits for those who have exhausted both regular and extended benefits. In 1971 such a supplemental benefits program was established when there were 5.1 million unemployed persons. and the unemployment rate was 5.5 percent. Well. today we have twice that number of unemployed persons. We have 10.3 million unemployed persons. more than twice the number of unemployed persons as there were in 1971. < In 1971 the unemployment rate was 5.5 percent. Today the unemployment rate is almost double. It is 9.4 percent as of last month. In 1974. during the next significant economic downturn. Congress again established a supplemental program when the unemployment rate reached 7.2 percent. and 6.6 million persons were out of work. I reiterate that in the current recession the unemployment rate is 9.4 percent. in other words. 2.2 percent higher than it was in the 1974 recession. Today we have 10.3 million Americans out of work. which means almost 4 millionlacking 300.000 personsalmost 4 million additional psons out of work over and above the number in 1974. In those two recessions supplemental benefits programs were established. Madam President. according to any objective criterion. the recession today is far more severe than was either of these previous recessions. Nearly 4 million more people are out of work today than at the time the last supplemental benefits program was set in place in 1974. That is a difference. a big difference. a large increase of 60 percent. It is for this reason. and because I believe it is urgent to provide some cushion for those whose lives are being wrecked for reasons beyond their control. that I have introduced legislation earlier this week to provide a third tier of unemployment assistance in States with high unemployment. The Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation Act of 1982 will be available to any State participating in the extended benefit program. Individuals will be eligible for its benefits if they meet all extended benefits criteria but have exhausted those benefits. I am profoundly hopeful that we have experienced the worst of the current recession. and I hope recovery will be evident soon. although. frankly. I do not believe that that will be the case. Because the recessions conclusion cannot be seen clearly. the bill I have introduced earlier this week provides simply that the program will terminate when the national unemployment rate drops to or below 8 percent. but allows States with exceptionally high unemployment to continue in the program for a maximum of 6 more months. The Congressional Budget Office projects that the program. if put into place on June 1 of this year. would cost $337 million this fiscal year. $627 million in fiscal year 1983. and $111 million in fiscal year 1984. The budget resolution was not rssembled with the assumption of such an expenditure. Therefore. the amendment I am offering will add these sums in both budget authority and outlays to the appropriate function in the resolution. Durixt this period when reducing the deficit is such a difficult task. proposing any program that will add to current Federal expenditures can only be done with serious concern. But our current budgetary dilemma not only does not remove the Governments responsibilities and its obligations to the people of the United States. in fact. in some crucial respects those obligations and responsibilities are heightened by the very recession that has been such a major contributor to our budgetary Imbalance. I say with absolute conviction that the supplemental benefits program my legislation proposes addresses one of these vital and fundamental responsibilities. If we provide the necessary funding latitude in this resolution. and if we enact the supplemental benefits program that I and 21 other Senators cosponsored and submitted earlier this week. we will be giving critical and immediate assistance to unemployed workers whose benefits have or soon %Ill have expired in at least 31 States. Madam President. these victims of the recession are not principally Democrats. they are not principally Republicans. They areall of themAmerican workers on whom this Nation has depended before an must again depend when this destructive recession is ended. I am hopeful that Senators from both sides of the aisles will recognize this problem and respond to it and will join trgether in this this effort and speed supplemental assistance to those whose wellbeing depends on receiving it soon. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this amendment. We cannot fall to provide the badly needed help to the American workers whose wellbeing is on the line today.