Extending Emergency Unemployment Insurance
WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (IL-05) urges the House to pass emergency unemployment insurance and address the jobs emergency facing America through meaningful job creation legislation.
Below is a video and transcript of the speech is below.
I rise today to urge the House of Representatives to consider and pass emergency unemployment benefits for the 1.3 million long-term unemployed American workers. On December 28th, 82,000 Illinois workers’ unemployment insurance expired. 38,000 of those workers are in Cook County and 5,000 more in DuPage. The Senate has agreed on a bipartisan basis to extend emergency unemployment insurance, and the House should act today to do the same.
Opponents of extending emergency unemployment insurance may say, “Isn’t the emergency over?” While the economy on whole has improved, there is still an emergency: a “jobs emergency.” There are 2.9 unemployed workers for every available job. Long-term unemployment is still at the highest rate we have seen in this country since World War II.
Opponents of extending emergency unemployment insurance criticize the long-term unemployed, belittling their efforts to find work in this economy. For the worker out of a job for 27 weeks or longer, you have just a 12% chance of finding a new job within the month. These numbers continue to fall with each passing week. These workers face challenges to their health, their mental well being and often struggle with family relationships.
I left Chicago yesterday where Illinois has the fourth highest unemployment rate in the country. Yet I come to Washington to inaction on unemployment insurance and jobs legislation. Instead of blaming workers, lets us as members of Congress look in the mirror. What have we done to address the issue of long-term unemployment?
Last year, we took dozens of votes to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act but we have done little to nothing to create jobs. We have done nothing to advance immigration reform, which will infuse over a trillion in our economy over the next twenty years and create jobs. We have done too little to address the nation’s long term transportation needs by investing in infrastructure, which will create jobs. We have done little to invest in research and education which will grow our economy and make us more globally competitive, all of which will create jobs.
Instead of playing politics, let’s take it upon ourselves to pass meaningful jobs legislation. And let us extend benefits to these workers in their time of need.