The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS EXTENSION” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Labor was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H233 on Feb. 12, 2002.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS EXTENSION
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, in the first 6 months of 2002, 2 million American workers are expected to exhaust their unemployment benefits. Even when we account for growth in the workforce, this means more workers are expected to exhaust their benefits in the next 3 months than in any first quarter since the early 1970s.
Of those exhausting benefits over the next 6 months, only 4 percent, 4 percent, are expected to receive extensions through State unemployment programs.
This extraordinary number of anticipated exhaustions is due to the huge number of job losses that occurred in the last 6 months of 2001. These job losses were caused by a slowing economy, by unsound trade policies and by the devastating attacks of September 11. To make matters worse, many of the jobs lost in 2001 were good-paying, high-
skilled manufacturing jobs that have probably been lost forever.
In my home State of Ohio and across the country, the steel industry has been devastated by a combination of foreign dumping and the current recession. According to the Department of Labor, the U.S. has lost 1.4 million manufacturing jobs since President Bush took office, 1.4 million manufacturing jobs. Total job losses from 2001 reduced our manufacturing base by 8 percent, 8 percent in 1 year, diminishing our industrial capacity to 1964 levels.
In each of the last five recessions, the Federal Government stepped in to provide additional benefits to those temporarily out of work. This recession, Mr. Speaker, should be no different.
Last week efforts to craft a bipartisan stimulus package failed in the Senate. The Senate did, however, approve a 13-week extension of unemployment benefits.
For the last 5 months, however, the Republican leadership in this House has repeatedly promised to help laid-off workers. They made that promise during the debate of the initial disaster relief bill; then they did nothing. They made that promise during the debate of the $5 billion airline bailout bill; then they did nothing. They made that promise in the two economic stimulus bills passed by the House; again, Republican leadership did nothing.
The question is, were their promises to help laid-off workers, to help America's unemployed, were their promises contingent upon simply obtaining new and permanent tax breaks for America's wealthiest companies and wealthiest individuals? To prove this is not the case, I urge the Republican leadership to bring a simple, clean 13-week unemployment benefit extension to the House floor as soon as possible. Our workers have waited long enough.
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