to go to college. he was born, returned to yemen, was raised to hate america, raised to hate our western an adult and as became a terrorist who insighted others to terrorism against the united states. erhaps some have heard of al -moudi. had paperwork, held it up for director mueller and he was not aware that the boston mosques, that the boston bombers attended were started and we have the paper, the boston society that

amoudi was the founder. and he was the friend and adviser in the clinton administration. but during the bush administration, he was arrested at dulles airport and later pled guilty and sentenced to 23 years in prison for supporting terrorism. it might be worth noting for someone in homeland security or - e state department that al amoudi convicted and supporting terrorism while his wife was here on a visa, had a child, who was an american citizen. a man named morsi, president of

egypt, until he began to disregard the constitution of egypt to an extent that people rose up in egypt in numbers greater than anywhere in history f the world and demanded his ouster as the coptic pope has said, this isn't a cue, but the egyptian people rise understanding up. reporting in over twice the numbers that president morsi claims that voted for him to make him president. it appeared he was doing as one egyptian told me as the president who was elected in the gaza strip had done, once he had the election, he pulled all the power to himself and didn't need elections after that. there would never be anybody who

defeat him like chavez in venezuela. and as one egyptian told me in egypt within the last few weeks, if the egyptian people had waited another year to try to remove morsi from office, i it would have been unable. he would have pulled that much power on to himself. i think accolades should go out to the egyptian people for rising up and demanding democracy, demanding the fruition of a true arab spring. and for people who are ignore ant or promoting lies like mr. hussein, you would do some checking, you would find that i have moderate muslim friends around the world, because anyone, muslim, secularists, any

persuasion, race, creed, color, religion, national origin, if they believe in freedom, they're brothers in liberty. and something i think that would do well for this administration to learn at some point before it's too late, we should be able to work with the enemy of our enemy. moderate muslims in afghanistan islammists adical leading and in charge of afghanistan again. there is a simple answer to the problem of us leaving afghanistan, which will soon ecome taliban-run again. and this administration's bug

willing, even though the bug willing began in the last administration, in fairness, it did -- but the final bug willing will be by this administration if we don't take action to prevent those who fought for this country for believing they died -- their loved ones died in vain. i don't believe they did. they fought for liberty. i heard from too many who have lost in afghanistan who have said don't let our loved one who died in vain. the taliban were defeated in a matter of months in afghanistan. and we did it with less than 500 embedded special ops, intelligence. we gave air spofert. provided some weapons --

support. provided some weapons and they defeated the taliban. former vice president under karzai in the first administration, former vice president massoud, a friend of mine, a muslim, rushed out of his home to embrace me when i got there not too long ago. because he knew i was his friend. i don't want him to live under rat call islam. he doesn't want to live under radical islam. and said look, if you could just help us get an amendment to our constitution. i said what are you talking about? he said, under our constitution that you apparently rubber-stamped, in essence, a strong centralized government

was created in a country that has been, is and will be very tribal, very regional. and we tried to make it into a strong centralized government when what the people wanted was a federalist system where the states, where the regions had some self-autonomy like we are supposed to have in this country. he said if we could elect our own governors and it's a shock to so many, the constitution that we thought was ok under the bush administration, allows the president of afghanistan to , point the regional governors to appoint the mayors, to appoint the chiefs of police. i appoints the top-level

teachers. appoints a slate of the legislators for a part of the legislature. has powerful abilities to manipulate the purse, the purchases them strings. what -- purse strings. what we helped them create was a formula for disaster and corruption. how could you give one man that much authority to appoint and not expect corruption? when you get to appoint all the governors and as my friend, former vice president massoud told me in his home, if we could have an amendment that allowed us to elect our governors, allowed us to elect our mayors, allowed us to elect our own chiefs of police, that our regions would be strong enough to prevent the taliban from

taking back over the whole country. and we could rally together as we did before to overrun them and run them out of the country. and i said, what makes you think that the united states could help push an amendment through your own constitution? that needs to happen in afghanistan, i said. but he pointed out, do you have any idea how much our federal government budget is? i had to admit i didn't know. he said around $123.5 billion of your dollars. e said do you hoach they provides? i didn't know. about $1. billion. other moderate muslims there are all in agreement. need to help us with this. and he said most of the rest of that $11 billion comes from the

united states. you have the leverage to help us get an amendment to our constitution. instead of trying to work out some messed-up status-of-forces agreement as we have seen this administration try to do in iraq, to no avail, instead of doing that, why don't we start pushing karzai and say you help get an amendment in there so you don't get to a point and let each state or region elect their own governor. let's get that amendment in there. otherwise we are going to cut every dime of support off. that might have some sway. we have the ability, we have the leverage and we have a little

bit longer before we totally lose it, some moral authority to seek that on behalf of our moderate muslim friends in afghanistan, who don't want to be killed because they fought with us and for us in defeating the taliban before we became occupiers. before we gave them a centralized golf government that the taliban can take over when we leave. we owe them that. and we owe ourselves that, because if we can empower the enemy of the enemy of the taliban tore continue to continue to keep the taliban at bay in afghanistan, we have done a great thing. we have helped our country and we have helped our moderate muslim friends in afghanistan who do not want to live under taliban tyranny again. and they don't want to die and

be killed, because they helped us and we abandoned them. we owe them that. mr. hussein who is writing thr garbage from the "washington times" will do a little research and will also find out if he does so, that president mo rmp si, the muslim -- morsi who was elected president reportedly. some said it was fraudulent. but any way, he was made president and then began to abuse and tighten -- use the constitutional powers, tighten the reins around him. i was told by friends who love israel, this is exciting because morsi is our friend and cleaning up the sinai and after he was emoved, we found it has been

militarized by morsi. what would you expect by a man who said that jews are descended from aprils and pigs. and s not -- from apes pigs. you have the military demill tar ising to fight the radical islamists that pose a threat to the sue ezz canal and our friend israel and threatening to take action. and what did this administration do? hey had promised 10 apache helicopters to morsi's regime. but when the people of egypt rows up and demanded and got the

ouster of a man trying to become a tyrant, this administration wanted morsi put back in place and even sent a couple of republican senators to ask for morsi to be released from prison and as the general admitted to me in the presence of our ambassador, that yes, they had evidence that mo rmp si was trying to have a contract to have the general killed, murdered. hire a contract killer. and that was just one of the mr problems that morsi created. president morsi said, he backed off his membership, his participation in the muslim brotherhood. yeah, right. whose video of him taking of

having orders dictated, delivered to him by the supreme leader there. and what happened when morsi was removed, the muslim brotherhood went beserk and began burning churches, killing christians, persecuting jews and christians, ersecuting moderate muslims. and i am so proud of the people of egypt. they want a democracy. a man named amir musea was appointed as chairman of the constitutional convention. incredibly diverse groups there. incredibly diverse interests. yet they all agreed on this to art out, under musea's

leadership, that unless 75% of all of those delegates to the constitutional convention agreed on a provision, it wouldn't be there. and they -- as the chairman pointed out to me personally, he said, you know, we learned from your constitution, basically, he said, you know, our prior constitution under morsi had no provision for impeachment. there was no way to lawfully remove him under that constitution. which was the way morsi wanted it. and in their new constitution they have provisions for impeachment. and this constitutional convention was led by moderate muslim friends like amir musea. and it was endorsed by the sheik ofal azhar. a very well respected muslim

leader. and it's been endorsed by so many muslim leaders. they don't want radical islam in charge. moderate muslims can be and are our friends. and instead this administration canceled the order for the 10 apaches, or at least suspended it. and what is egypt doing with the apaches they already have? they're fighting radical islamists in the sinai and they're making sure ships get through the suez canal. that should be a worthy endeavor. worthy of this administration not condemning a true democracy in the making in egypt, but trying to help them keep the suez canal open. trying to help them demilitarize the radical islamists

controlling the sinai. as a threat to the suez to egypt and to our friends israel and jordan and others. in that constitution, the convention approved, and which will be voted on in egypt isuary 14 and 15, article 64 a provision for freedom, stating that freedom of belief is absolute. you have an absolute freedom to believe in whatever religious beliefs you care to believe in. without the government's harm. what we're seeing here is really , if it works out, the people approve it, is the beginning what have we saw in turkey, so any decades ago. when radical islam was overrun

and turkey plumed and became a great nation -- bloomed and became a great nation under his leadership and under those who followed what he set forth. article 93 of the new egyptian egypt ution commits that is the obble -- is obligated to observe all human rights, that egypt has ever endorsed and in all treaties to which it has agreed. article 235 was shocking to me, in their you this constitution. the moderate muslims of egypt, ho want a democracy, they felt so badly about the radical islamists that make up the muslim brotherhood burning so many churches, persecuting, -- persecuting, killing so many

christians, that article 235 requires that the first parliament pass a law to deal with the churches that were that egypt sure rebuilds those churches for them. what a statement to the world about the freedom they want to see take place. that's why it was so moving to people that told me about being there firsthand during those -- the revolutionary masses as they came forward by the millions, holding hands, figuratively and literally, christians, moderate muslims, secularists, jews saying, we don't want radical islam. it's high time this administration began helping the enemy of our enemy instead of

rying to help our enemy. as the general asked me, are you in the united states still with s in the war against terror? he and others commented to the fact that the united states leaders do not seem to believe we're still having to fight terrorists anymore. they are fighting them. in this new government. to be sure, they've got a long, tough road ahead. because they are already where this nation is heading, with massive welfare state, where so many of the citizens are getting giveaways from the government, where they've tried this idea of redistribution of the wealth and it's led to many more and much

richer people and much, much poorer people, just as we've seen in this nation in the last five years and it needs to stop. and another thing that needs to , state was reported department whistleblower has email hacked. the story talks about the whistleblower who helped expose misconduct by hillary capitol hillton's security detail, had his g mail account hacked and key evidence against state department officials deleted, according to an exclusive "new york post" d report. diplomatic security service criminal investigator richard higby had exposed earlier this year that the state department allegedly covered up reports alleging improfrights but secretary of state hillary clinton's security detail in which they had engaged with prostitutes abroad. those reports would have also exposed the belgian ambassador's alleged attempts to solicit and

it goes on. but the article says the gmail hack deleted four years worth of messages, including significant damning evidence against high-ranking officials in the state department. it also included messages with evidence sent to members of congress and their offices investigating the story. he called for the f.b.i. to investigate the hacking and continues to have unanswered questions about other strange occurrences which he began to expose the covered-up investigation. the article goes on, and that goes hand in hand with another story that was reported in the past six months or so of a whistle blower having her and her husband's home burglarized and they ended up taking all of that reporter's files that she wrongdoing, pose

misconduct within the very department that raided her home and took her records and won't give them back. and at the same time this administration continues to send people to the nation of israel, the jewish state, the home where people could come by the after six million were killed in the holocaust of world war ii. and we have the nerve to send people over to the leaders of israel and tell them they have got to give away more land when every time they have given away land, whether it was northern israel that's now southern lebanon or whether it's the gaza strip, anything they've given away ends up being used as a

staging area from which to attack it and those to whom the we is given use our money provide for books to teach their children to hate jews, to hate israelis and to hate the united states. as i've said for years, you don't have to pay people to hate you, they'll do it for free. we could make our word good to our veterans if we just quit paying the people that hate us. let them hate us for free. maybe they'd learn to like us and come ask to work with us and find out we're actually pretty decent people, if we quit paying them to hate us. the palestinians, it was reported, january 1, in this "jerusalem post" article, said, palestinians reiterate plans to

reject any framework presented by the u.s. and yet we send over secretary of state, well meaning, and others to demand israel give up more land to people that say they will reject it, but give us more land from which we can attack you. and i think about the verses in jeremiah where the prophecy is there, that there will be grapes grown in the mountains of is a maria, that some are saying doesn't belong to israel. well, it used to. 1600 years before a man named muhammad was born, king david was ruling in that region. but over the years, over the decades and centuries people have said, look, that area, those mountains of samaria will not grow grapes. that's ridiculous. and yet in the past couple of years i've tasted those grapes, the vineyards are beautiful, they are israeli, jewish

ineyards in the mountains of samaria, just as it was prophecied would happen and god would make it happen. and we send a secretary of state over saying, you got to give god what you believe providentially provided for you. we, the united states, know more than any god you believe in. give it away. it's been prophecied. i'd hate to go against a prophecy. and yet this article from the telegraph, iran nuclear deal, saudi arabia warns that it will strike out on its own, as steve king, michelle becomeman and i, robert pittinger, traveled to some of the countries in the middle east, as others of us traveled around the middle east back in september, it is

incredible but this administration, with what it's doing in iran, the rest of the middle east believes is going to allow iran to have nukes, and saudi arabia and our other allies and our enemies all want nukes and nuclear proliferation will become just a rule of thumb , which is why i think this article appeared january 2 in "the washington times" showing a comment that makes sense how to. but any communist icon declares obama/u.s. no longer leads the world. he had great hopes for the united states. he had obviously great hopes for this administration. he said, whatever hope in the world existed that obama would reclaim moral leadership for america when elected in 2008 is gone and instead the president has failed to bring that dream to fruition.

he told cnn. quote, we have to do everything we can to recreate, to reclaim america's role and it seems that obama would manage that, but he didn't accomplish that, unquote, he said. quote, america did not regain its leadership status, we're just lucky there were no bigger conflicts in the world because it had big -- because if it had had bigger conflicts then the world would be helpless, unquote. the trouble is, 2014 will be a year in which there are bigger conflicts, bigger issues. it's time we did the moral thing by our military veterans, it's time we did the moral thing by stopping the spending of children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren's money and it's time we did the moral thing by our friends and quit helping our friends' enemies hurt our friends. moral to regain the

authority we once had. that can be done and we need to seize the day and do it. with that, mr. speaker, i yield ack. the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced policy of january 3, 2013, the gentleman from california, mr. garamendi, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.

mr. garamendi: i thank you, mr. speaker. it's good to return from our three weeks back in our districts. i suspect that most of us spent time talking to our constituents, observing the good and the bad and the cold and the wet, not in california. we have been in the midst of a drought. but working, as we should, back in our districts. and also spending some time with our families along the way. for me, it was one of those periods of time where we were reaching out, trying to gain an understanding of the challenges that face our constituents. as i returned here today, i realized that in 1964, mr. speaker, mr. speaker, right below in the podium, one of our key assistants is now standing or nearly standing, a fellow by

the name of lyndon johnson gave a speech. here's a picture of him. january 8, 1964, speaking to a joint session of congress. i think it was his first speech after becoming president following the assassination of president kennedy. there he stood. and among the things he told america was that it was time for a war, a war on poverty. and he urged the united states to take on the troubling and continuing issue of poverty in the united states. i remember that speech. i was in college at the time. i remember him standing there and i remember that challenge following shortly upon the challenge that president kennedy

had gave us. ask not what our country could do for us, but what we could do for our country. those two things came together and they have been with me these many, many years, together with one other, one other very famous and very important challenge, and this was from franklin roosevelt. it's etched into the marble at his memorial here in washington, roosevelt resident said the test of our progress is not whether we will add more to the abundance of those who have it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little. hat epical, moral position was

taken up by lyndon johnson when he declared the war on poverty, 50 years ago. 50 years ago. at a time when seniors in the wered states, 47% of them, impoverished. i remember well during those years when my father took me to the county hospital to visit a ,eighbor, the poverty, the ward the odor, the hopelessness. so what did america do? what deposit america do to face this challenge? well, social security was already in place. one of the fundamental pillars to deal with poverty among seniors. in this chamber, in the senate chamber, the men and women who

then represented the american people put forward an extraordinary effort to deal with poverty in the united states. and one of those major second pillars to address poverty was the establishment of the medicare program for seniors. men and women over 65 years of age were guaranteed that if they lived to 65 in the years and days following, they would have health insurance program. incredible step forward. many other things were done. programs were put in place for jobs. job programs across this nation. in appalachia, in the central valleys of california and all across this nation. and outpouring of sympathy,

outpouring of the basic morality of this country took place. children, in 1967, 29% of the children in this country in 1967 were in poverty. today, 2012, it's 19%. one out of five. far too high. a challenge for our generation. how did they bring it down from 29% to 19%? they did it with government programs of many kinds. head start, food stamp programs. programs dealing with earned income tax credits, which by the way was added during the nixon period. all of those things together reduced the poverty. today, take away those

government support programs for children and we would have 30% of every child in the united states living in poverty. i would like to remind my republican colleagues that what they have attempted to do this year in their budgets, in their appropriation proposals is to reduce those programs that the children of the united states or many of the children, 30% of them, nearly one out of three, depend upon to stay out of poverty. not a good idea. if this is one of our moral compasses. adding to the abundance of those who have much or providing to those who have too little. if that's a moral compass, how are we doing? ell, let's look at it.

let's look at how we're doing. one of the things that f.d.r. said was the four freedoms, freedom from want. as a result of the great recession in 2010 and beyond, 46.2 million americans live below the poverty level. ighest number in 52 years. food lines in america today, as 1930's, men and women lining up at the various food programs to get food. america today. about the children. how about the children today? .hose one in five if f.d.r. says the test is not

how well the well are doing, the wealthy, but rather how the poorr in 2012, the wealthiest americans took home the biggest share of income, the biggest share of income in 2012 ever recorded in america's history. one out of every four children in america go to bed at night not knowing where their next meal comes from. in my own area, sacramento, california, as report the by the "sacramento bee," the capital's newspaper, the bottom 20% of the of on's people lost 27% and income between 2007

2013, the beginning of 2013. the bottom 20% earned less than 23,000 a year, yet they lost 27% of their income. the next 20%, those 4 $43,000 nd below or down to $23,000, lost 22% of their income. the next 20%, not the 60%, those between $43,000 and $71,000 annual income, lost 15% of their income. this is america today in my america where the bottom 60% have not moved forward, but rather have moved backwards. oh, but if you are in the top

20%, these folks here, they took n 50% of all of the income generated and earned in the sacramento region. the bottom 20% took in 3%. franklin roosevelt, how are we doing with our moral compass? how are we doing? are we adding to those who have little or are we adding to those who have much? it's clear. not just in the sacramento, california region, but across this nation, that those who have much are doing extraordinarily well, while those who have little are falling further and further behind.

hmh. 50 years ago today, president johnson stood right there and he declared a war on poverty. and where are we today? we're not winning that war at all. but there are solutions. there are ways in which we can deal with this. to put a stopm is to this kind of situation. this is a photo taken outside of a workshop that i conducted in fairfield, california, for the unemployed. it's a jobs work shop. 1,000 people in a town of less than 100,000, showed up seeking a job. unemployment is very real. and unemployment is a specific

cause for the statistics that indicate growing poverty in america. these folks want a job, but yet, on december 28, 1.2 million americans, some of them here in their ne, lost unemployment insurance. are they wealthier having lost an average of $265 a week on an unemployment insurance check, long-term unemployment insurance check, or are they poorer? what are they going to do? 2.9 people of every one of these people, 2.9 people are looking for the one job that exists. one out of three will find a job, maybe. long-term unemployed have an

even greater challenge. and we'll talk about that tonight. we have an enormous challenge here in america. we have to put people back to work. fairfield, california, 2,640 of the folks that stood outside searching for a job in early december -- by the way the temperature was not below zero, but below freezing. they were standing in the cold, below temperature, just to have a chance to talk to the 50 or some employers that were there. by the way, 50 veterans did get an opportunity to get a job that day. 2,640 long-term unemployed lost their unemployment insurance and they don't have a job today. so what of them?

another county, one of the poorest in america, also one of the wealthiest counties for those at the top, population is 21,244. people lost unemployment health insurance. people are desperate to go to work. we are going to talk about that with my colleagues. . . yesterday i had a meeting of my agricultural advisory committee, i have a very big agricultural district. $3 billion farm gate. one of the farmers, a conservative fellow, came up to me and he talked to me about food stamps. and he said, hey, listen, i know you're working on the farm bill and i know this issue of farm subsidies very much is in play but i'm telling you where i'm coming from. you can reduce the subsidies but

make sure people have food. make sure that the snap program, the food program is in place. i'll trade the subsidies so people have food. and he said, and this was the interesting part, because i'd in not heard it from a conservative before, he said, and raise the minimum wage. raise the minimum wage. interesting. today the federal minimum wage is $7.25. if you were to use equal dollars, take out the inflation, 7.25 equates to a minimum wage in 1978, this is ronald reagan eriod, 1978 of $10.60. so in equal dollars in 1978, the minimum wage was $10.60. today it's $7.25. you wonder why, why is it

that this america today -- why is it that in america today we have food lines? why is it? in america today that one out of four children go to bed hungry, worrying about where their next meal is going to come from, why in america? after 50 years with l.b.j. standing right there and declaring a war on poverty that we are where we are today? minimum wage have something to do with it? oh, yes. does unemployment have something to do with it? oh, yes. and it's going to be worse tomorrow. as it was on december 29, january 1, january 5, 6, today, the 7th, and tomorrow the 8th.

when 1.2 million people don't have that unemployment check. and unemployment insurance is gone. and by the way, it will get worse. unless this congress acts. on the unemployment insurance, the statistics are there. right there. by the end of this year, unless congress acts to put people back to work, and we can, and we will talk about that tonight, unless congress acts to extend the unemployment insurance, 4.9 million americans will lose heir unemployment insurance. and this will be the face of america. hungry children. this will be the face of america. hungry adults. families without jobs.

but this is america. this is the place where we can solve problems. we have it within our capability as a nation, as an economy to put people back to work. we can do it. if we have the will to do it. and it's up to us to look into ,he faces of poverty in america to look at the children of america and say, we can address this issue. we can put people back to work. we can do it now by rebuilding america's infrastructure. we can pay for the unemployment insurance by not spending nearly $90 billion this year in afghanistan for the most corrupt government on the face of the

earth. $6.8 billion needed to keep americans with food and shelter and clothing. we can take it out of the pocket of mr. karzai and his cronies and still meet the challenges that my colleague spoke about earlier this evening. we're making choices here. we can build our infrastructure, we can pay for the unemployment insurance, we can educate our children. for those long-term unemployed that need a re-education, need to have that job skill, we can do it. and when we do it this economy will grow. the taxes will flow into the governments of the united states, including the federal government, the deficits will shrink, but you leave that long-term unemployment, as high as it is today, and we have put

an anchor out the back of the great economic ship of the united states and we will not be able to move forward in a way hat addresses this issue, this fundamental, moral issue of america. are we providing enough for those who have too little? today we're not. but we can. and joining me tonight are two of my colleagues. from the east coast, paul tonko. you and i have spent many hours here on the floor discussing these issues. and joining me, our new colleague from the state of , mr. horsford. i'd like you to start. i know you had an experience this last week. i want you in your district when you met with people who were

unemployed. please share with us your view of this issue from the state of nevada. mr. horsford: thank you. first, i'd like to extend my appreciation to my colleague, mr. garamendi from california, for laying out the case for economic mobility. and i'm glad that we're beginning to have this discussion at the beginning of this second session of the 113th congress because a it's the discussion that the american people -- because it's the discussion that the american people desperately need this congress to focus on. and you touched on it. are we providing enough for the people who have too little? are we focused on those who are in the middle class and are striving to be part of the middle class? i'm from nevada. nevada is currently tied with rhode island for the highest unemployment in the nation. at %.

-- at a 9%. this is not something we're proud of. we like boasting about being the entertainment capital of the world. the fact that we have some of the most magnificent natural resources. but unfortunately the prolonged recession has hit our state and the people of nevada to our core. and it's because in large part our economy was a growth economy. from nearly 20 years, year over year, we had double-digit growth . and people were moving to the great state of nevada to help us build and to grow. but during the recession that changed. and so now thousands, over 100,000 nevadans are unemployed and have been, primarily from the construction, engineering and architecture sectors of our

economy. but thousands of nevadans have doingmore than a year now what many of us here in congress maybe haven't had the perspective of experiencing. and so my question to my colleagues tonight is, you have ever been unemployed? do you know what it feels like to have to go to a work center or to spend your days full-time looking for work? do you know what it means to submit resumes after resumes, never to get a call back? not knowing if it's your skills, or some other issue as to why you're not getting that interview. well, thousands of nevadans have

the full-time job right now of looking for work. and i recently held a meeting at a local work center, work force connections, and met with constituents who are affected by this prolonged recession and the discussion that we're having here tonight about the need to have a priority and a focus on creating jobs in america again. they've been affected by the down turn in the economy and ey've been affected by the expiration of unemployment benefits, many of them. and i promised that when i came back to congress today, that i would share the story of several of these constituents. because too often we talk in this chamber as if there aren't people behind the numbers. there's 1.3 million americans, our neighbors, who are without

unemployment insurance. think about that term, insurance. of the unemployment insurance program. who are relying on this congress to do its job so that our neighbors, our friends, and some of our family who are unemployed cannot be left out and without. so i just want to share the story of several of these constituents because i want to put a perspective on who we're talking about. one of the constituents, her name is pauline. she's worked in a warehouse customer service position. she hases a degree in book keeping -- she has a degree in book keeping but unfortunately after more than 20 years in serving as an accountant, her skills are outdated and so as she's looked for current jobs, she hasn't been able to land

one. she was laid off because technology devaled her position. and there was no longer a need for her services. she currently lives at a home with her husband and two adult offspring who are also looking for work. one of her daughters just got hired actually yesterday as a teacher. she was very proud of that. so you know what she's doing after 20 years? she's enrolled in a training program to update her skills. in quickbooks, so that she can add that certification to her resume because that's one of the things that the employers that she's applying for say that they want her to have. is this certification. and she's using the unemployment insurance as a bridge while she's in training to allow her and her family to meet their basic obligations, to keep a roof over their head, to provide food on the table and to keep the lights on.

those are the basics that are being funded because of unemployment insurance. then there's alfredine. she was laid off from the medical industry after more than 20 years as an administration person she handled all of the admissions for this local medical company in southern nevada. she is currently looking to obtain her vertfication for her to meet the minimum requirements for current positions in her field. she's also a cancer survivor. she found out she had cancer after she lost her job. the job that provided her health benefits. she was thankful because of the affordable care act, she now can get insurance again that she lost because she lost her job.

and after more than 20 years of caring for people in the health care industry, she's now relying on unemployment insurance as a bridge so that she can meet her obligations while going to school, so that she can get back into the career that she loves. helping other people. teresa also was laid off from the medical industry. she is in need of updated skills and certification in order to find gainful employment. one of the things that struck me about the stories listening to pauline isredine and they all expressed the same concern that because they've been in the work force for 20 -- one was in the work force for 30 years, that they feel like they're not being given an equal shot now, in competing for jobs when they go to apply. that they feel like because of

their age, maybe, that they're being looked over for possible positions. and i think that's a real issue that this congress needs to confront and i know that there's legislation by people like want to atives who bring this issue to this body and i ask the speaker to allow that legislation to be considered. there's jane who worked also as a customer service representative, who is enrolled in a training program to become a medical biller because he knows that's a demand occupation right now and there's a ton of openings but he needs a certification to get the job. and then there's susan who is