This post has been updated.
A memo from House leadership to the Republican caucus coaches members on how to speak about unemployment in a compassionate manner, according to the Washington Post.
The memo tells representatives that unemployment is a “personal crisis” and asks them to give “proper consideration” to an extension of longterm unemployment benefits.
The Senate voted to advance legislation that extends the emergency unemployment benefits Tuesday, but House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has insisted that the extension must be paid for in order to pass the lower chamber.
The Democratic National Committee on Tuesday criticized the GOP’s approach to addressing unemployment and the benefits extension.
“Republican leaders can offer advice on how to sound empathetic when discussing unemployment but that won’t change the fact that today we saw the majority of Republicans in the Senate vote against extending vital unemployment insurance benefits,” DNS Deputy Press Secretary Rebecca Chalif wrote in an email to reporters.
“No amount of message guidance is going to change the reality that their policies are bad for the unemployed, they are bad for the middle class, and they are out of touch with the vast majority of Americans.”
