Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, first let me thank my colleague and friend from Illinois for, as usual, his articulate, right-on-the-money and right-to-the-point remarks which I agree with.
Right now, many middle-class families are facing the prospect of losing the unemployment benefits they are relying on to get them through this recession. Out-of-work Americans consider these benefits a lifeline. But too many Republicans are treating this like a political football. If Congress does not act to extend these benefits, nearly 2 million Americans will lose their unemployment insurance by the [Page: S10815] end of the year--2 million. They have families, people who depend on them. And 90,000 of those are in my home State of New York. That is 2 million people--90,000 in New York--who have been trying to find work and are now going to have their safety net pulled out from under them. Well, we cannot pull the rug out from under so many Americans. We owe it to them to do the right thing and extend unemployment insurance.
It is a mystery to me why so many on the other side of the aisle are blocking passage of this legislation. Everywhere I go in New York--downstate, upstate, large cities, urban suburbs, rural areas--people come up to me with a pleading look in their eyes: Can you please renew, extend unemployment benefits?
What in the heck are we waiting for? Why are we putting people through this agony? So far, Republicans have been opposed to this extension as they seek to extract political amendments out of Leader Reid. It is just another example--the latest one--of a stalling strategy. On one legislative priority after another, their motto has been the 1980s slogan ``Just say no.'' But if there is one thing this recession and budding recovery has taught us, it is that America can't recover leaving behind our workforce.
There is a general view that since much of the first stimulus package has not yet impacted the economy, a second one is not necessary. But unemployment benefits are the quickest, most effective form of economic stimulus, and they are aimed at the weak point of this economic recovery, which is jobs. The dollars get out the door fast and will be spent by those who don't have another source of income at a time when we need to boost consumer demand.
So I plead with my colleagues on the other side of the aisle: Stop playing the games, and let's just pass unemployment insurance. I know there are lots of extraneous amendments on all kinds of issues that you wish to debate. Leader Reid has been very generous in allowing debate after debate on these amendments, much to the chagrin, frankly, of many on this side of the aisle. This is one time when we should put the games aside. We should just unite. My guess is that unemployment insurance extension will get a large high vote on both sides of the aisle. Stop playing politics with this benefit extension. Extending unemployment benefits is crucial to ensuring that as our economy picks back up we do not leave the recession's victims in the dust.
I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
