House Considers Unemployment Insurance Extension

[Earth Bound Misfit]

AFL-CIO Now Blog News

by Mike Hall, Sep 12, 2008

With the nation’s unemployment rate the worst in five years and tens of thousands of U.S. jobs vanishing each month, jobless workers are finding it tougher and tougher to secure new work. Some 800,000 will run out of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits in October—1.1 million by the end of the year—unless the U.S. Congress passes and the president signs legislation extending benefits.

A bill to extend UI benefits for seven weeks—plus another 13 weeks for jobless workers in states with high unemployment rates—was introduced this week by Reps. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) Said McDermott:

With the unemployment rate nationally now above 6 percent, and our economy staggering under the weight of years of failed economic policies, it is time for the President and Republican Party to join us in urgently meeting the needs of the American people.

Earlier this year as the economy continued to worsen and joblessness grow, President Bush and Sen. John McCain opposed aiding jobless workers as part of an economic stimulus package. It wasn’t until the end of June, with economic bad news growing, that Bush relented and signed a UI extension. But more than 1 million jobless workers will soon run out of those benefits.

Meanwhile, McCain continues to operate under the delusion that the economy is doing just fine. He repeatedly has said the “fundamentals of the economy are strong.”

Now Congress is considering a second stimulus package, and the Rangel/McDermott bill could be folded into the package. McCain does not endorse a second stimulus package, but it is backed by Sen. Barack Obama. Meanwhile, a Bush administration spokesman said there is no need for a second stimulus package because the first stimulus plan was having the intended impact (like the decline in retail sales in August, a time when back-to-school shopping typically gives sales a boost?).

[madrchsod]

1. i hope it extends my emergency 13 weeks unemployment money

what`s cool about this program it actually shows how many people like me have been out of work and unemployment for a year...