http://MOXNews.com/March 02, 2010 C-SPAN
(Washington, D.C.) - U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen today took to the Senate floor to urge her colleagues to help end partisan obstruction and extend critical programs that affect millions of Americans, including federal unemployment benefits, highway funding and small business loans, and to prevent slashing Medicare reimbursements to doctors.
Shaheen's remarks as prepared are as follows:
"Mr. President, last week, Senate leadership reached agreement on a short term extension of federal unemployment benefits and other critical programs that were set to expire.
"But, when we tried to pass the bill, sadly, a single Senator objected. Because of that one Senator and his filibuster, federal unemployment benefits and health care subsidies for people who have lost their jobs have now expired. This Senator also single-handedly halted highway projects across the country and put workers' futures in jeopardy. The obstruction of this bill has brought to a standstill small business lending programs that have been successful at boosting the number of SBA guaranteed loans since the Recovery Act was passed. Because of this Senator's actions, physicians will see their Medicare reimbursements slashed by over 21 percent, threatening seniors' health care.
"Now, there may be some people who don't realize the damage caused by these lapses. So I want to point out what is happening to too many people because of this filibuster.
"First, this is about the struggles faced by individual workers and their families. Right now, with a record number of unemployed workers competing for each job, it's become harder than ever for people who lose a job to get back to work. Of the 15 million Americans who are out of work today, nearly six million (more than one in three) have run through the benefits provided by their states.
"These six million people are the ones served by federal unemployment, a critical safety net that helps families buy gas and groceries, heat their homes, and pay the mortgage while they look for that next job.
"Now, because of the actions of just one member of this body, actions that I believe are irresponsible, more than 1.2 million people will get their last check during the month of March.
http://shaheen.senate.gov/news/press/release/?id=3C0FFC24-9041-4E83-9C32-C07D81C99967http://shaheen.senate.gov/
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