Department of Labor Secretary Thomas Perez
Thomas Edward PerezClinton’s top five vice presidential picks Government social programs: Triumph of hope over evidence Labor’s 'wasteful spending and mismanagement” at Workers’ Comp MORE on Wednesday blasted lawmakers for not extending long-term unemployment benefits.
"In particularly, the main piece of unfinished business from the Great Recession is the plight of the long-term unemployed," Perez said at the 2014 conference of the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans.
"Unfortunately there's a little bit of [unemployment insurance] fatigue among some in Congress. We're going to make sure that fatigue doesn't exist, because too many people are suffering," he said.
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"[He is] remarkably talented and has been unemployed for almost two years, doing odd jobs just to get food. Ran out of unemployment benefits — effectively homeless, and he has been stripped of his dignity," Perez said.
"That's really what I hear from so many people: 'I have a poverty of spirit,' " he said.
Perez, whose father was a veteran, said long-term unemployment is the issue that keeps him up at night.
"We need to make sure that we don't ever quit on them," he said. "It is not a lifestyle, it is a lifeline for people who have lost their jobs through no faults of their own."
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