Date: 2011-12-13
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. I rise today to oppose H.R. 3630. "Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2011." This legislation sends the wrong message at the worst time for Americans. As we approach a new year. my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have once again targeted millions of seniors and middle class families for cuts without asking essentially anything of millionaires and billionaires. They have singled out Medicare premium increases that permanently increase seniors costs by $31 billion. The bill also. when you look at it carefully. spends $300 million on a special interest provision that helps a handful of specialty hospitals while cutting billions from community hospitals. Republicans have targeted the unemployed. slashing 40 weeks of unemployment insurance. impacting millions of families still struggling under the weight of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Twentytwo jurisdictions with the highest unemployment rates would be hit the hardest: Alabama. California. Connecticut. DC. Florida. Georgia. Illinois. Idaho. Indiana. Kentucky. Michigan. Missouri. Nevada. New Jersey. North Carolina. Ohio. Oregon. Rhode Island. South Carolina. Tennessee. Texas. and Washington. The result would be that in the state that Mr. CAMP and I come fromMichiganthe bill would cut unemployment insurance to 46 weeks. Essentially the sacrifice will be borne by middle class and low income Americans. as the wealthiest among us have not been asked to join in this shared sacrifice. Not even after the wealthiest 1 percent saw their incomes nearly triple in the last three decades while salaries for middle class families barely budged. There are more than four unemployed Americans for every job opening. Never on record in our Nations history have there been so many unemployed Americans out of work for so long. There is nothing normal about this recession. Republicans are clearly out of touch with the needs of American families. I am committed to producing tangible results in suffering communities through legislation that creates jobs. fosters minority business opportunities. and builds a foundation for the future. Every American deserves the right to be gainfully employed or own a successful business and I know we are all committed to that right and will not rest until all Americans have access to economic opportunity. According to a report released by the Department of Labor late this afternoon. 3.3 million Americans would lose unemployment benefits as a result of the GOP bill compared to a continuation of current law. In the State of Texas alone 227.381 people will lose their sole source of income by the end of January. This bill stands as a shining example of not keeping a pledge given to the American people. A little over a year ago. Republican leadership released to the public their Pledge to America in which they told the American people that they would "end the practice of packaging unpopular bills with mustpass legislation to circumvent the will of the American people. [Further] Instead. [Republicans] will advance major legislation one issue at a time." This is what my colleagues stated less than one year ago. But before this body today they have presented us with a package that is the exact opposite of that pledge. This bill is riddled with provisions that I cannot support. I will not support needlessly adding to the burdens already being borne by hard working Americans. This is an inconsistent message being given to the American people. The Republicans need to honor their pledge to the American people. This bill will reduce the current Payroll Tax Cut by 2 percent and addresses the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) for two years. providing a 1 percent update for both 2012 and 2013 and resulting in a scheduled 37 percent cut in 2014. It extends the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Program until January. 2013 but lowers the amount of time benefits are provided from 99 weeks currently to 59 weeks. It also includes permanent provisions allowing drug testing of applicants and would allow states to require a high school diploma or being enrolled in classes for a GED to be eligible for benefits. The bill offsets the costs of these extensions by significantly increasing both the amount of Medicare premiums paid by highincome beneficiaries and the number of beneficiaries required to pay these higher premiums. and by cutting Medicare provider rates. In addition. it prohibits immigrants without social security numbers from receiving the refundable portion of the Child Tax Credit. It further offsets the bill by freezing federal employee pay for an additional year through 2013. and increases fees charged by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to lenders. It also includes frequency Spectrum sales to help offset the cost of the bill. but with provisions related to net neutrality included in the language. H.R. 3630 is a direct assault on the jobless. This legislation sends the wrong message at the worst time for Americans who are looking for employment. who are concerned about losing their homes and who are doing everything in their power to feed themselves and their families. and their neighbors. If we allow these unemployment insurance benefits to expire in the next 17 daysthere will be millions of people who will not be able to pay their mortgage or their rent in January and could find themselves homeless by February. We are throwing millions of Americans out of their life boats. into an ocean without a life preserver. This is senseless. If those benefits run out. millions of people whove lost their jobs could see their sole source of income end in January. And this could have an effect on the larger economy. While the bill extends the payroll tax deduction. it limits the availability of federally funded unemployment assistance. and includes punitive provisions for the least skilled jobless workers. If there is a single federal program that is absolutely critical to people in communities all across this Nation at this time. it would be unemployment compensation benefits. Unemployed Americans must have a means to subsist. while continuing to look for work that in many parts of the country is just not there. Families have to feed children. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics the state of Texas continues to have the largest yearoveryear job increase in the country with a total of 253.200 jobs. However. there are still thousands of Texans like thousands of other Americans in dire need of a job. The bill being brought to the Floor by my Republican Colleagues does not adequately address the needs of the unemployed. The plan put forth by my Republican colleagues has provisions to slash the duration of federal unemployment benefits by 40 weeks. Since 2008. federal programs expiring in January have provided up to 73 weeks of compensation for workers who use up 26 weeks of state benefits. In addition. the version heading to the House Floor would slash an additional 20 weeks of federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation and it would let states reduce benefits even further. It would also impose a uniform federal work search requirement and disqualify high school dropouts not actively pursuing GEDs and millionaires from receiving benefits. The unemployment reforms. sweeping as they are. may be lost amid other features of the Republican package. A worker advocacy group recently described the drug testing element as the "most disturbing" part of the Republican unemployment reforms. "Devising new ways to insult the unemployed only distracts from the current debate over how to best restore the nations economy to strong footing and the discussion over how to best support the unemployed and get them back to work." The requirement to insist that to qualify for benefits that a person has earned should require a GED or a high school diploma will have a negative impact on minorities. The labor force participation rate for persons without a high school diploma is 20 percentage points lower than the labor force participation rate for high school graduates. Nationally. approximately 70 percent of all students graduate from high school. but AfricanAmerican and Hispanic students have a 55 percent or less chance of graduating from high school. Only 52 percent of students in the 50 largest cities in the United States graduate from high school. That rate is below the national high school graduation rate of 70 percent. and also falls short of the 60 percent average for urban districts across the Nation. What is needed is job training programs that are funded rather than penalties for those who for a multitude of reasons have not attained a high school diploma or GED. Unemployed workers. many of whom rely on public transportation. need to be able to get to potential employers places of work. Utility payments must be paid. Most people use their unemployment benefits to pay for the basics. No one is getting rich from unemployment benefits. because the weekly benefit checks are solely providing for basic food. medicine. gasoline and other necessary things many individuals with no other means of income are not able to afford. Personal and family savings have been exhausted and 401 Ks have been tapped. leaving many individuals and families desperate for some type of assistance until the economy improves and additional jobs are created. The extension of unemployment benefits for the longterm unemployed is an emergency. You do not play with peoples lives when there is an emergency. We are in a crisis. Just ask someone who has been unemployed and looking for work. and they will tell you the same. With a national unemployment rate of 9.1 percent. preventing and prolonging people from receiving unemployment benefits is a national tragedy. In the City of Houston. the unemployment rate stands at 8.6 percent as almost 250.000 individuals remain unemployed. Indeed. I cannot tell you how difficult it has been to explain to my constituents who are unemployed that there will be no further extension of unemployment benefits until the Congress acts. Whether the justification for inaction is the size of the debt or the need for deficit reduction. it is clear that it is more prudent to act immediately to give individuals and families looking for work a means to survive. Currently. individuals who are seeking work find it to be like hunting for a needle in a hay stack. For every job available today. there are four people who are currently unemployed. You can not fit a square peg in a round hole and point fingers at the three other people who when that jobs is filled is left unemployed. Lets be realistic there are currently 7 million fewer jobs in the economy today compared to when this recession began.