WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., today spoke from the Senate floor on the current worker shortage that is holding back businesses from reopening and slowing down the nation’s economic recovery.

“By all measures, our economy should be firing on all cylinders. But America now has a workforce problem. People are not heading back to work,” Wicker said.

In his remarks, Wicker called out the negative effects of Democrats’ $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that included billions in aid for extended unemployment benefits, despite projections from economists that the economy was on track for recovery without additional stimulus.

“Three months later, the results are unflattering for my Democratic friends. Last month, our economy produced a paltry 266,000 jobs when experts had predicted over a million jobs. This at a time when our economy has a record eight million jobs available – jobs that need to be filled.”

Wicker praised efforts by state governors, including Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves, to refuse additional unemployment payments that are stifling the job market.

“Government is now paying millions of able-bodied Americans to stay home when they could be back on the job,” Wicker said. “I commend Governor Reeves for opting out of expanded federal unemployment funds in order to help our state embark on a full recovery. Nearly half of all governors now share the same mind and are saying “No” to those unnecessary funds.”

“Americans need government to get out of the way. Republicans stand with the American people and on the side of a full recovery,” Wicker concluded.