Tier 5: Congress Sends Mixed Signals About Adding More Weeks Of Unemployment Benefits

[tonysam]

Excerpt from Huffington Post:

Both the House and Senate have passed measures extended eligibility for existing benefits through the end of the year, but the measures need to be reconciled and voted on again in each chamber. Reid's office has said that that will happen before the end of May, which is when the current stopgap extension will expire. When asked about adding a Tier 5, members of Congress typically say they need to focus on getting the the full-year extension finished before adding extra weeks.

Aside from Baucus's insistence that it shouldn't be done, the most definitive statement about Tier 5 has come from Sen. Tom Coburn, the Oklahoma Republican who in the name of deficit reduction obstructed the most recent effort to reauthorize the existing 99 weeks of benefits.

"We have 99 weeks of unemployment compensation out there right now -- and we're gonna move that to 103, and then we're going to move it even further," Coburn said in March. Congressional leaders declined to comment on adding weeks.

Every utterance about Tier 5 is closely tracked by the unemployed, who have formed several communities online where they analyze what's happening in Washington -- and discuss how they might influence it. One enterprising layoff victim has been encouraging her fellow unemployed to bombard D.C. offices with faxed resumes.

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[tonysam]

1. Who the hell is unrec'ing this?

Why would anybody be against helping the long-term unemployed?

[Love Bug]

2. That doesn't sound like mixed signals to me. That sounds like "no."

[tonysam]

3. Not so sure about that

It depends on the senator or representative.

More and more pressure is going to have to be put on Congress to do something about this.

[upi402]

4. Do they want people in the streets?

k/r