Date: 2004-02-04
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. I yield myself the remaining time. Mr. Chairman. this is an important debate. I appreciate that my colleagues on the Republican side of the aisle do not like this bill being used for this purpose. but let me say to them. this is the only vehicle we have because they will bring us nothing to address the unemployment problem in this country and the loss of unemployment benefits. We are trying. We are trying on this side of the aisle to use any vehicle we have to try to get this Congress to respond to the needs of millions of Americans who are at risk of losing or have already lost their unemployment benefits. millions of middleclass Americans who are working hard. who are about to go in a downward financial spiral that leads to chaos in their families. that leads to bankruptcies. that leads to the loss of assets. millions of working Americans who play by the rules. had a job. worked hard at it. and then through no fault of their own they lost it. This Congress stands by as 375.000 people lost their benefits in the month of January. We knew it was going to happen. We went home for Christmas. What kind of Christmas did these people have when they knew that their benefits were going to run out? What kind of Christmas did these hardworking families have? We have heard a lot over the last couple of months about two Americas. This is the other America. This is the America without stock options. This is the America without vacations. This is the America without jobs. Most of them have worked their whole lives. played by the rules. tried to do it the right way. tried to raise their families. and now all of that is at risk. and we sit with $17 billion in the trust fund. and they say go to the States. The Sthte of Illinois is out of money. The State of Minnesota is out of money. The State of Missouri is out of money. North Carolina is out of money. New Yorks out of money. Texas is out of money. Californias about out of money. and Arkansas is heading in that direction. My colleagues do not have a solution. go to the States. What a cynical approach. The gentleman from Texas takes the well and. says go to the States. and his State with 300.000 people in it is out of money. is out of money. So his answer apparently is nothing for these families. I do not get it. I just do not get how this happens to people who work all year long. year after year. and then they find out they are closing the factory. they are closing the mill. their job has disappeared. They run out and try to find another job. They cannot find the job. They run from place to place. They send out resumes. they go through retraining. They cannot find a job. and then they run out of unemployment benefits. and they get to go home to their spouse and to their children and say we are going to have to sell the house. we are going to have to sell the car. we have lost our health insurance. What is this Congress for? What is this Congress for if we are not here to try and bridge those people across these troubled waters from unemployment to employment. I know my colleague is going to say. these people want a job? You bet your buns they want a job. They just do not have one in the Bush economy. They just do not have the opportunity.