“Unemployed workers who have been hit hard by this recession are just one family illness away from bankruptcy,” said Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chairman Pete Stark (D-CA). “This bill extends coverage to those who need it the most, and sets the groundwork for ensuring coverage for all as we pursue comprehensive health reform this year.”

“It is completely predictable that, in this recession, millions of low-income American workers and their families with lose their jobs and join the ranks of the uninsured.  We can’t just sit by and let this happen,” said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee. “This bill allows states, through their Medicaid programs to provide immediate help to these families until they can find employment.  The additional federal funds will help hospitals, physicians, community clinics, and pharmacies make their payrolls and keep the staff they need to continue to serve the newly unemployed.”

“As the unemployment rate continues to grow, so will the number of uninsured,” said Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. “COBRA coverage is a lifeline to millions of Americans and it is crucial that out of work Americans have access to affordable health insurance.”

Under current law, eligible workers may continue to receive health coverage through a previous employer’s health plan for up to 18 months, but are responsible for 102 percent of the cost of that coverage. Three provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (H.R. 1) would provide help to these workers by:

• Providing a 65 percent subsidy for COBRA premiums for up to 12 months for workers who have been involuntary terminated between September 1, 2008 and December 31, 2009;
• Making funding available to states that elect to provide Medicaid coverage to unemployed and uninsured individuals and their families; and
• Extending the qualification for COBRA benefits for older and long term workers until they obtain new employer-sponsored coverage or become eligible for Medicare.

To view a fact sheet on these provisions, click here.

For more information on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, click here.

“It is not surprising that, in its waning days, this administration is possessed with an urgency to undo basic worker protections,” said U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-MI), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.  “This regulation will hurt American workers and make foreign guestworkers even more subject to abuse. I will work with my colleagues and the new administration to right the wrongs undertaken in the issuance of these midnight regulations.”

"Once again the Bush Administration has shown that it is no friend to working people," noted U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA). "In this last minute maneuver the administration has slashed protections that agricultural guest workers have secured. These changes not only hurt foreign agricultural workers, but also undercut standards for American workers, as the new rules lower pay and working conditions for temporary foreign agricultural employees. My colleagues and I will work with the incoming Obama administration to ensure that these ill-conceived changes are undone."

“Given today’s economic crisis,” U.S. Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-CA) said, “it is stunning that on their way out the door, the Bush Administration would take this eleventh-hour swipe at farm workers who are already paid some of the lowest wages in the United States.”

The rule affects workers in the U.S. Department of Labor’s H-2A guest worker program, which has become rife with fraud and abuse under the Bush administration’s watch. Under this program, employers are allowed to hire foreign workers only if they can’t first find American workers, and only if the wages and working conditions they provide don’t have a negative impact on U.S. workers.

Among other things, yesterday’s rule weakens these requirements, making it much easier for employers to simply hire foreign workers over available American workers.  These changes would also, for the first time ever, allow employers to pay American workers lower wages and benefits than H-2A workers for performing the same job.

The regulation came just one day after Congress approved legislation that creates new criminal penalties for foreign labor recruiters and U.S. employers that lure foreign guest workers to this country under materially false pretenses. Miller, Conyers, Lofgren and Berman championed these provisions, which were passed as part of a larger bipartisan measure to combat human trafficking. For more information on the bill, click here.

The Bush administration is also expected to issue new regulations next week that would lead to further exploitation of non-agricultural foreign guest-workers in the Department of Labor’s H-2B program and would fuel greater unemployment among U.S. workers in construction and service industries.