Senator Gleason, under his constitutional right of protest (Art. 4, Sec. 18), protested against the passage of Senate Bill No. 613 and moved that the statement he made during the discussion of the bill be printed as his reasons for voting “no.”
The motion prevailed.
Senator Gleason’s statement is as follows:
My fellow Senators, I again rise in objection to this. There are no hidden thoughts or unknown information about the condition of our state. Most people do not realize that zero percent unemployment is not really zero percent unemployment because of the hard to serve and the disabled. We already have a federal figure that we use to determine the rate of unemployment. So, actually, our state is hovering closer to 20 percent and growing every day in that regard because people have expired their unemployment insurance. We can look at each and every individual district and understand that families are suffering more now. They have expired this previously-mentioned lifeline for these families—$364.00 is roughly the maximum amount that a family can receive. We know that none of us could live on that stipend, the few dollars that they receive every single day, and yet, the responsibility is put on these employees solely for fraud.
I have not seen any indication at all in this legislation that we are going to elevate the requirement for more responsible reporting by the employees or the employers themselves. Now to say that this is harmful to our state’s economy is not right. This is federal stimulus money. This does not cost our local businesses a cent. Well, people will say a few years down the road, we may have to continue this program, but that is not necessarily true either because we are taking action now to extend it from unrealized funding sources.
So two years for now, we can readdress this. When the stimulus monies runs out, then we can review this situation. So let’s take the federal stimulus money and spend it on these suffering families. None of us could live the lifestyle that we do on this small stipend. It has been too many years since we raised unemployment. And, as far anyone can tell, we have never, ever, ever raised our stipend to our children—our dependants.
A few weeks back, I tried to pass an amendment that said we would give our children more than $6 a week; the dependants of these employees who have lost their jobs. So let’s use the stimulus money for what it is expected to be used for—to help these families who have lost jobs, health care, and unemployment itself.
Mr. President, I ask that my remarks be recorded and I ask that we turn down this very onerous bill on behalf of the families in Michigan.