(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) voted to
help pass an extension of unemployment benefits that will ensure that
thousands of Washington workers whose unemployment benefits were in
jeopardy are not cut off. On April 5th, many Washingtonians who have
been searching for work had their benefits suddenly lapse after
Republicans blocked an earlier proposal to temporarily extend benefits.
Today, Murray helped pass a bill that will extend benefits for
60 days while the Senate works on a long-term extension through the end
of the year. The bill passed by a vote of 59-38. The legislation will
now go to the House of Representatives for consideration. On Wednesday,
Senator Murray delivered a speech calling on Republicans to support the
emergency extension to help Washington families.
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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