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One Telephone Call
November 13, 2008

“By making just one telephone call, the President could single-handedly jump start the U.S. economy and throw economic lifelines to millions of unemployed Americans,” Rep. Jim McDermott, chairman of the Income Security and Family Support Subcommittee, which oversees the nation’s unemployment insurance system, said today.  He made the comment following release of troubling new data that shows a surge in unemployment filings to levels not seen since the aftermath of 9/11.

Rep. McDermott explained that his legislation, H.R. 6867, to extend unemployment benefits passed the House in early October on a massive bi-partisan vote of 368-28, but the legislation stalled when Senate Republicans, after consultation with the President, would not permit the legislation to come to the floor for a vote.  The bill would extend benefits a minimum of seven weeks in every state, but 13 weeks in states where the unemployment rate has averaged 6 percent or higher over three months.

“When 85 percent of the House of Representatives vote in favor of anything, which was the case with my bill to extend unemployment benefits, that is a dramatic expression of strong support across party lines, state lines, and unemployment lines,” McDermott said.  “The House demonstrated the will to act and the President can show the way by making one telephone call to the Senate Republican leader to support the immediate passage of legislation to extend UI benefits.”

McDermott noted that Members of Congress will be in Washington, D.C. next week and the Senate could quickly pass his UI bill and the President could sign this economic lifeline legislation ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday. 

He added that the money to pay for extended unemployment benefits is in a federal trust fund right now and it is meant to be used in a time like this.  The money is collected from every employer based on the number of employees. 

Furthermore, independent studies show that an unemployment insurance benefit is money that is almost immediately re-injected directly into the economy to pay for food, housing and other family expenses.  This legislation would provide approximately $6 billion in additional UI benefits and economists conclude that every dollar yields approximately $1.64 in economic impact as the money ripples through the economy and helps to sustain other jobs and restore consumer confidence. 

McDermott pointed to a quote by Mark Zandi at Moody’s Economy.com made earlier this year:

“The benefit of extending unemployment insurance goes beyond simply providing financial aid for the jobless, to more broadly shoring up household confidence. Nothing is more psychologically debilitating, even to those still employed, than watching unemployed friends and relatives lose benefits. The slump in consumer confidence in late 1991, after the 1990-91 recession, may very well have been due in part to the first Bush administration’s initial opposition to extending UI benefits for hundreds of thousands of workers.”

Rep. McDermott concluded: “We are in the midst of an economic emergency.  One telephone call by the President is all it would take to make a dramatic and immediate difference in the lives of ordinary Americans.”