Date: 2002-03-12
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman for yielding me time. - Mr. Speaker. I support the work of this Committee on the Census and H. Con. Resolution 339. and I am happy to honor the Census Bureau for its work. The Census Bureau tells us not only how many people live in the United States. but the condition of these individuals living in our country. It also tells us about the unmet needs of the people. and as we read the unmet needs of the people as outlined in the census. we are struck by the fact that. week after week. the Republican leadership in the House continues to spend an inordinate amount of time. valuable time that belongs to the people of this country. to continue to pass these kinds of symbolic resolutions. while ignoring the urgent needs that deserve the debate and action of this House. the urgent needs as outlined in the census. It took the House Republican leadership 6 months after September 11 to finally address the economic plight of over 7 million unemployed people. including the 1.5 million men and women who had exhausted their unemployment benefits because of a recession that began months before the terrorist attack. A reading of the realtime census would have told the Republican leadership that 80.000 people a week were losing their unemployment benefits. losing any type of economic support. threatening the loss of their homes. of their apartments. of their childrens schooling. of their health care. and yet nothing was done for 5 months. Perhaps a reading of the census could have spurred us on to quicker action on behalf of these Americans. Perhaps it would have spurred us on to pass a bill to help those unemployed Americans. without holding them hostage to hundreds of billions of dollars in tax -benefits for the wealthiest individuals and corporations in this country. We still have not been allowed to consider extending unemployment benefits to millions of hardworking Americans who pay for benefits. but are denied them under current law. temporary workers. lowincome workers. parttime workers. contingent workers. who. if you read the census. are more likely than not to be women. to be young people. to be immigrants. Why is there not a bill on this floor. instead of this resolution. assuring unemployment protection to all Americans who work hard to provide for the wellbeing of their families and for this country? A census would show that in fact huge numbers of Americans are uncovered by the unemployment insurance system in this country. A reading of that census would also point out the fact that 40 million fellow Americans. nearly one in seven. live in fear of sickness or injury in the family because they cannot afford basic health insurance. They do not have access to it because they cannot afford it or because it is denied to them. The census would also tell us that over half of those individuals are fulltime yearround workers with families. and yet. as we see from the census. they are denied health care. and if they are Hispanic families. their chances of lacking health insurance are more than twice as high. according to the census. We have time to honor the census and the Census Bureau. and it is properly so. but when we come here week after week after week after week and we ignore the basic needs of the American people. the basic needs of the American family. the basic needs of the American working individual. it is time for us to get on with their business and not the symbol. these symbolic resolutions.