Democrats Urge Republicans to Take Action On Unemployment In

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Democrats Urge Republicans to Take Action On Unemployment Insurance, Payroll Tax Holiday, SGR

MESSAGE FROM THE DEMOCRATIC WHIP
This week, I was disappointed Republicans did not focus on strengthening our economy or doing more to help the millions of Americans still out of work. Instead, they continued to pursue a partisan agenda by voting to undermine consumer protections, add hurdles to the regulatory process, roll back workers’ rights and make it harder to protect voters. The bills they brought to the floor this week did nothing to create jobs. And unfortunately, Republicans refuse to work with Democrats on bipartisan proposals to put Americans back to work – the Make It In America plan and the American Jobs Act – despite the fact that they do not have a comprehensive jobs plan of their own.
As the year comes to an end, there are a number of pressing items that Congress must address. Last week, I sent a letter with Leader Pelosi and Assistant Leader Clyburn to Speaker Boehner urging Republicans to work with Democrats to extend emergency unemployment benefits to assist millions of unemployed Americans. The letter also urged Speaker Boehner to work with us on the payroll tax holiday to ensure that middle class families don’t see their taxes increase at the end of this year, and to also work with us an on extension of the medicare physician payment rate to ensure that millions of seniors do not lose access to their Medicare physicians.
Allowing these extensions to expire would have a devastating impact on economic growth and job creation, especially if Republicans allow critical unemployment benefits to start expiring just days after Christmas. I hope that Republicans will put aside partisan differences and work with Democrats so that we can assist millions of Americans who lost their jobs through no fault of their own, put more money in the pockets of middle class families and ensure seniors continue to have access to their doctors.
Sincerely yours,

STENY H. HOYER