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Congresswoman Duckworth Calls on Congress to Extend Unemployment Insurance

Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–January 9, 2014.  Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth (IL-08) spoke on the floor the House of Representatives in support of extending unemployment insurance for more than 80,000 Illinois families.

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The video and text of her remarks are included below.

Mr. Speaker, Lynn Richards of Elgin, Illinois, a town in Illinois that is well known for manufacturing, everything from Elgin watches all the way through to the Elgin street sweeper still in use today. Lynn Richards of Elgin, Illinois needs her unemployment insurance extended. In April, she lost her manufacturing job of 3 years. She and her husband kept their family afloat with the help of unemployment insurance. Now, 10 months later, she is pregnant with her second child.

As she said recently, “I’ve been working since I was 20 years old. I’ve never had this much trouble getting a job in my life. I’ve applied to 200 places. I’ve gotten less than 10 calls and just a couple of interviews. No employer wants to hire someone who is pregnant.” Lynn is just one of 80,000 Illinoisans who have lost their unemployment insurance.

I understand what these families are facing. When I was a teenager my father, a combat Veteran who was in his mid 50s, and had worked since enlisting in the Marines at 16, lost his job. My dad did everything he could to find work but was turned down again and again. My mother took in sewing and I took a minimum wage job to help make ends meet.  Eventually, my dad got a job but federal assistance programs were there to help keep my family afloat.

Many Americans want to find work and simply can’t. Punishing these families by taking away unemployment benefits is a terrible mistake.

The absence of unemployment insurance is jeopardizing the economic progress we are making. By removing the benefits to 80,000 Illinois families we are taking more than $25 million out of our economy every week.

Let’s put partisanship aside and extend unemployment insurance now for our families and our businesses.

Source: duckworth.house.gov

 

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