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Source SFGate 10/3/08

The House voted Friday to extend unemployment benefits to those who have exhausted their current benefits. The vote came hours after learning that the nation’s payrolls were continuing to shrink and after the House had approved a massive financial rescue plan for Wall Street.

“People are hurting with no end in sight,” said Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. “It is our responsibility as a Congress to stand up and help them weather these tough economic times.”

But despite the strong 368-28 vote in the House, the bill’s chances of becoming law this year are slim. On Thursday, Senate opponents rejected an effort to bring the legislation to the floor, possibly dooming it for the year. The Senate is in recess for the elections and it is unclear if it will reconvene after the Nov. 4 vote for a lameduck session.

The House bill would provide seven additional weeks of payments to those who have exhausted their benefits. Those in states where the unemployment rate is above 6 percent would be entitled to an additional 13 weeks above the 26 weeks of regular benefits.

Sponsors said the measure would result in distribution of about $6 billion in benefits. They said it would be funded through the existing federal unemployment trust fund.

Without congressional action, about 800,000 people would run out of benefits in October, with that number growing to 1.1 million by the end of the year, sponsors said.

The Labor Department announced Friday that payrolls fell by another 159,000 in September. The unemployment rate stayed at 6.1 percent.

Congress has enacted federally funded extensions seven times in the past 50 years during economic slumps — in 1958, 1961, 1972, 1975, 1982, 1991 and 2002.

The House also voted in June to extend unemployment benefits for three months, but that bill stalled in the face of opposition from Senate Republicans and a White House veto threat.

The Bush administration contends that past extensions occurred only when the unemployment rate was considerably higher and that it was fiscally irresponsible to provide extra benefits in states with low unemployment.

Unemployment insurance is a joint program between states and the federal government that is almost completely funded by employer taxes, either state or federal.

Source SFGate 10/3/08

Here is another article on the situation from unemployedworkers.org

Extend Jobless Benefits

Extension Update

The House Sends the Message Loud & Clear that the Senate and the President Should Expand Extended Benefits (October 3, 2008)

Earlier today, the House of Representatives approved a complicated and massive Wall Street bailout, at a potential cost of $700 billion. Unfortunately, winning a far smaller, simpler and more affordable expansion of jobless benefits to help the 800,000 workers scheduled to run out of their limited 13 weeks of federal emergency aid by October 5th proved to be a much rockier road. Today’s jobs report from the Labor Department, showing a surge in long-term unemployment (with over 2 million workers now unemployed longer than six months, 600,000 more just since January) underscores the need for Congress and the President to act on expansion without delay.

Earlier in the week, the President issued a message threatening to veto the extension of jobless benefits. Despite the mounting job losses, the President said he opposed the extension on the grounds that “Unemployment benefits should be temporary in nature to encourage a return to work as quickly as possible.” Even former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan has noted that this argument doesn’t hold water in an economy in which both job losses and unemployment are rising.

Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made a last-minute motion on the Senate floor for “unanimous consent” to adopt a Senate measure (S. 3507) to expand jobless benefits. It was defeated when Republican Senator Wayne Allard objected to the motion. As a result, the Senate left town for the elections recess without passing the extension.

Today, however, the House of Representatives, in an overwhelming bi-partisan vote of 368 to 28, weighed in convincingly in support of the extension measure (H.R. 6867). Coinciding with today’s announcement of major job losses last month, the House vote sends the message loud and clear to both the Senate and the President that action must be taken right away to address the desperate needs of the families hardest hit by the economic downturn. The measure the House passed would provide seven more weeks of extended benefits to workers in all states (20 weeks total) and 13 more weeks to workers in “high unemployment” states (33 weeks total). The 8,000 workers who are members of www.unemployedworkers.org were instrumental in moving their members of Congress to support this effort with such an overwhelming show of support from both Democrats and Republicans in the House of Representatives.

Now, the focus shifts back to the Senate, and the “lame duck” session of Congress, which Majority Leader Reid has indicated will take place November 17-19th. That’s a long way away for the families of workers who are struggling to get by with no job and no jobless benefits to support them. Senators of both political parties will be home campaigning these next six weeks, and they should hear in no uncertain terms that it was wrong to leave town without extending benefits and that it should be their first order of business when they return to Washington.

“House Approves Extension of Jobless Benefits,” Associated Press (October 3, 2008):
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hGjNbXl6O23C8QzqZMY0pGPAik-AD93J713G0