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Ways and Means Leaders Praise Senate Passage of Unemployment Insurance Extension
November 20, 2008
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- House Ways and Means Committee Chairman
Charles B. Rangel (D-NY) and Income Security and Family Support Subcommittee
Chairman Jim McDermott (D-WA) praised the Senate for agreeing to legislation
passed by the House (H.R. 6867) to extend unemployment insurance benefits to
Americans suffering in these difficult economic times.
“With this extension we are taking the
right step, a necessary step, toward rebuilding our economy,” said Chairman Rangel. “Extending this basic assistance to help
unemployed workers pay their mortgages, feed their families, and heat their
homes is a down payment on broader economic recovery legislation that our
economy desperately needs. I welcome the
news that the President intends to sign this critical legislation, which will
help hundreds of thousands of workers who have lost their jobs through no fault
of their own.”
“Extending UI benefits is nothing less
than throwing a life ring to unemployed Americans to help them stay afloat in
these treacherous economic waters while they continue to look for a new job,” Subcommittee Chairman McDermott said. “This legislation represents a humane,
responsible and pragmatic course of action to assist decent hard-working
Americans who cannot find a job in a declining domestic economy that continues
to shed jobs.”
The House legislative leaders emphasized
that the legislation is fully paid for with monies saved in the federal
unemployment trust funds and provides very modest support for people who are
running out of benefits. Nationwide, the
average weekly UI benefit amounts to about $300.
Specifically, the legislation would
provide an additional 7 weeks of extended unemployment benefits in every State,
plus another 13 weeks in States where the unemployment rate has averaged 6
percent or higher over the most recent three months. In early October, the House passed the bill,
H.R. 6867, on an overwhelming bi-partisan vote of 368-28. The benefits provided by the legislation
would be in addition to the 13 weeks of federally-funded extended unemployment
benefits provided by Congress in June.
The legislation would provide $5.7
billion in additional UI benefits and economists calculate that every UI 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. And, economic 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.
Subcommittee Chairman McDermott said,
“Last week, I said all it would take to jump start the U.S. economy would be
for the President to make one telephone call to Senate Republican leadership to
signal his support for UI, and it looks like the call was made. I am grateful for that, because the American
people need compassion, not politics right now.
I look forward to the President quickly signing the legislation into law
and giving us all a reason to be a little more thankful next week.”
As passed by Congress, HR
6867 would:
·
Amend the current Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC)
program to provide another 7 weeks of extended unemployment benefits in every
State (bringing the total amount of potential extended benefits to 20 weeks).
·
Provide an additional 13 weeks in high unemployment States defined
as having a seasonally-adjusted, three-month average total unemployment rate of
6 percent (providing a total of up to 33 weeks of extended benefits).
·
Provide
about $5.7 billion in extended unemployment benefits (CBO estimate).
·
Nearly
900,000 workers are estimated to have run out of their current extended
benefits by the end of October. Without
this legislation, this number would grow to 1.2
million by the end of calendar year 2008.
Please click here to view the text of H.R. 6867.
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