UI Extension Should Be Paid for, Include Job Growth Measures
January 14, 2014
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor regarding the administration’s need to focus on meaningful job creation and paying for the UI extension:
“On the unemployment insurance bill, there have been productive conversations between the Majority Leader and several members on this side.
“Republicans have offered numerous common-sense proposals to get to a conclusion here.
“Ideally, we'd have spent the last week voting on those proposals.
“So there’s really no good reason for us to be in this position at all.
“And let me just underscore some of the things members on my side expect to see in the final product.
“First, the Senate should actually be paying for whatever it passes – and not with spending cuts 11 years from now that may never happen.
“It’s also reasonable to expect practical pro-growth job-creation measures, so we can actually help get people back to work.
“And for a solution to be reasonable it should also respect the right of our constituents to be heard on this issue through a more open amendment process.
“We’ve got to get away from an attitude that essentially says the views of half the American people don’t matter in the Senate. And these days, it’s gotten even worse than that. Ideas on both sides are often just ignored completely.
“That’s just not how the Senate is supposed to work. And here’s a golden opportunity to start fixing the problem.
“It’s the right thing to do.
“And I’m hopeful common sense will prevail in the end.”