(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray
(D-WA) delivered a speech on the Senate floor to urge Senate Republicans
to join with Democrats in coming to the assistance of job-seekers whose
unemployment benefits have been cut off. Many unemployed workers,
including thousands in Washington state saw their benefits lapse on
April 5th, after Senate Republicans blocked a proposal by Democrats to
pass an emergency extension at the end of March. The Senate is now
considering another extension that would provide job-seekers with the
benefits they need to continue looking for work, will help them support
their families, and will continue to stimulate economic recovery.
The full text of Senator Murray’s speech is below:
Unemployed Workers Have Had the Rug Pulled Out
Mr. President, last Sunday at midnight thousands of individuals
in my home state of Washington – who have lost their jobs through no
fault of their own – had the rug pulled out from under them.
That’s because these men and women who, wake up each day to scan the
classified ads, send out resumes, and travel to interview after
interview had the unemployment benefits they count on…suddenly cut
off.
And in losing that critical support, they lost an
important source of security, the help they need to stay in their homes
or make rent, and the stability that allows them to continue to afford
to look for work.
Frustration from Job Seekers
Mr. President, over the last two weeks I traveled throughout my
state talking to constituents, discussing our economy, and working to
support job creation efforts.
And I have to say the
frustration is clear – it is written on the faces of many in my state
who can’t seem to get a break. Who have come close to being hired, but
who have been told that the time is just not right – that they should
come back next month or even next year.
These struggling job
seekers don’t hold back when describing what they continue to face:
It’s an emergency. An emergency that affects their ability to pay
bills, their ability to put food on the table, and their ability to keep
their job search going.
An emergency that time and again we
have worked to respond to. But one that – time and again – we have
faced opposition on.
Republicans Putting Politics
Before People
Mr. President, before we left
for recess we had an opportunity to pass an extension of unemployment
benefits. To respond to the emergency in our job market and to avoid the
uncertainty that job seekers across the country now face.
Democrats put an unemployment extension on the table – a proposal
similar to extensions we have done routinely in difficult times – and as
we all know times have seldom been more difficult. But as has become an
all too familiar story – those on the other side of the aisle said no.
And instead put obstruction before assistance, politics before
people, and point scoring before the needs of those who have lost their
jobs.
Mr. President, this week we have a chance to make
things right.
The legislation that we are trying so hard to
pass this week is very straight forward. This bill will get unemployment
insurance to millions of struggling families who rely on it to meet
basic needs, to pay their mortgage, or to afford school.
It
will restore the safety net that is critical to keeping our economy
stable. It will give those looking for jobs the means to afford to keep
looking for them. It will keep our economic turnaround on course. And
it’s aimed at helping real families with the real problems they face
every day.
But make no mistake, Mr. President, the
consequences of not reaching a compromise and passing this bill are just
as real.
Families Are Watching How We Respond
Today, families in every single one of our states are sitting
around their kitchen tables trying to figure out how they’ll make it
through the weeks and months ahead without these payments.
Often times they’ve spent their day calling employers, going to another
job fair with long lines and few opportunities, and filling out job
applications.
These families are looking to us to for help
in their time of crisis. But every evening these same families turn on
the nightly news and hear another story about gridlock in our nation’s
capital.
They see a Senate that is forced to jump through
procedural hoops and endure endless delay tactics to get even emergency
legislation passed. They see politics clouding policy. They see
obstruction impeding progress. And, you know what, they’re sick of it.
So Mr. President, today I urge us to come together and move
forward with the same urgency that those who have lost their
unemployment have.
That we join together the way we did to
pass The Children’s Health Insurance Program, or fair pay for women in
the workplace, or small business tax cuts. That we restore the faith of
the American people. And that we pass this critical extension.
Unemployment Not Enough – Job Creation Efforts
But Mr. President, for those who are fighting to get back to
work and to support their families once again – unemployment can’t be
enough.
We also need to be taking every step we can to
improve the job market unemployed workers wake up to face each morning.
Because while there have certainly been signs of improvement – we still
have so much that we need to do.
Community Banks
And I believe that work starts with helping our small businesses
– the heart and soul of our economy. Mr. President, growing up, my dad
ran a Five and Ten Cent store on Main Street – yes, actual Main Street –
in Bothell, Washington.
All 6 of my brothers and sisters
and I worked there. We swept floors, stocked shelves, and worked the
register. And when small businesses like ours struggled, we felt it. We
saw it in the till at the end of the day – in the families struggling to
afford groceries. Small business were the economic engine of Main
Street then, and they still are today.
But what I hear time
and time again today is that while Wall Street is doing better – Main
Street is still struggling. And that the small community banks – a major
source of capital in all of our communities – aren’t lending.
And when small banks – the life lines of small businesses – don’t
lend, then credit isn’t flowing, businesses aren’t hiring, and recovery
isn’t coming to Main Street.
That’s why I’ve introduced
legislation that would redirect TARP dollars to buy toxic assets – like
bad mortgages – off the books of our community banks to help free up
credit and get them lending to small businesses again. We’ve done enough
for Wall Street – it’s past time we concentrate on helping our small
businesses and local employers.
Easing the Tax
Burden on Small Businesses
Mr. President,
another way to help improve local job markets and all those looking for
work is to lessen the tax burden on our small businesses so they can
afford to hire new workers.
Over the recess, I talked to the
owners of local bakeries, hotels, marketing companies, and more from
throughout my state. And they all told me the same thing.
They want to hire and expand – they even see new opportunities – but the
risks right now are just too great. What they need from us is certainty
and security.
And I told them that we are working to
provide them with just that. I told them that health care reform
includes a 35% tax credit that small business owners can receive
immediately to help them cover their workers. I encouraged them to hire
unemployed workers that have been out of work more than 60 days because
they would now receive an exemption from payroll taxes for those
employees. I told them that now is the time to make big purchases
because we have worked to pass legislation that will allow them to write
those purchases off immediately. I told them that we have worked to
ensure the Small Business Administration is increasing local lending
efforts.
But I also told them that there is more to
accomplish and that they need to be the focus of recovery efforts from
this point on.
Health Care Workforce
Mr. President, another central tenant of improving the job
market is included in the historic health care reform legislation we
passed into law last month.
As we all know, that bill
greatly expands access to care in communities all across the nation.
But what has gone less noticed, is that that the bill also
greatly expands access to health care careers to help meet the new
demand.
As the Senator in the HELP Committee responsible for
the health care workforce section of the bill, I worked to ensure we
made numerous investments to create and sustain good-paying health care
jobs. Our bill includes incentives like loan repayment programs,
scholarships, and grants to encourage students to go into high-need
fields and to work in underserved areas.
And it invests in
education, training, and retention efforts not just for new health care
workers, but for those already providing quality care across the
country.
Because investments in our health care workforce
create jobs, ease the strain on overworked health professionals, and
keep Americans healthy so they can be productive on the job.
Veterans
Unemployment
And finally Mr. President, I
believe we need to pay particular attention to efforts to hire our
nation’s heroes – our veterans.
Right now the unemployment
rate for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan is over 21
percent. More than one in five of the men and women who return from the
battlefield come home only to have to fight to find work.
These are disciplined, technically skilled, and determined workers who
nonetheless have been left to stand at the back of the line or have
their resume lost in the stack.
Over the last two weeks, I
talked to unemployed veterans in my state about just what it is that is
keeping from finding work – and what they told me was shocking.
Many veterans told me that they sometimes leave off the fact that they
are veterans from their resume because employers look at it as a
negative rather than a positive – because of the stigma of the invisible
wounds of war.
National Guard members talked of coming home
to find they had been laid off because their job no longer existed at
the company they left behind to serve our country. Others told me that
Pentagon and VA transition programs simply aren’t working.
And that they struggle to have employers understand how the technical
skills they learned in the military will translate to help them in the
civilian working world. What I heard was unacceptable and it must change
immediately.
That’s why next week I will be introducing a
bill that will take a look at why these skills aren’t translating. That
helps veterans get into apprenticeships and careers where they will
excel. That will improve the military and civilian transition process.
And that will set up a Veterans Business Center within the Small
Business Administration to help our veterans get the skills and
resources to start their own businesses.
Keeping
Workers Afloat
Mr. President, this week we
have a chance to keep unemployed workers afloat.
An
unemployment extension is a lifeline. It is a lifeline that will allow
unemployed workers to continue pursuing every job opportunity and to
support their families.
But ultimately, we need to get these
workers into the boat. We need to get them into good, stable jobs.
And that means supporting our community banks, reducing the tax
burden on small businesses, and expanding opportunities for health care
workers and our returning heroes.
As I said earlier, the
American people are watching this body. They want to see the same
urgency they feel every day.
They want to know that their
dinner table debates are our floor debates. That creating jobs is our
number one priority. And that we will be at the back of those who are
trying so hard to get back to work.
Mr. President, I urge
everyone to come together to pass this important extension of
unemployment benefits and to put politics aside in the weeks and months
ahead to help create job opportunities.
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