Main Street

No Jobless Aid Vote Until April 12

As Mitchell has written, it’s unemployment insurance extension time again.

And once again, one Republican is coming forward to block it — one is coming forward, but his party is with him.

In a statement, the National Employment Law Project says:

“It is unacceptable that Congress has, for a second time, failed to extend the existing federal benefits programs with so many people counting on this assistance. We have been down this road already and seen the turmoil it caused. Congress cannot continue to play games with people’s lives. They need to get the job done, now,” said Christine Owens, Executive Director of the National Employment Law Project.

“One million people are now newly at risk of losing benefits in April because of Congress’s failure to act, and 212,000 alone will lose benefits in the first week. It will be devastating if
Congress takes a two-week break with such significant business left unfinished. There’s no break in the crisis for unemployed workers. The House has passed an extension, and now the Senate needs to get it done before the program is slated to expire,” said Owens.

“The delay in the extension comes at great expense to jobless workers and the U.S. economy.
There are now 14.9 million unemployed Americans and long-term unemployment afflicts 6.1 million – over 40 percent of the unemployed. Over 11 million jobless workers are collecting some form of unemployment insurance, including nearly 5.7 million receiving extensions. There is much work to be done and workers simply cannot afford to go through this benefits renewal drama every month or two. Congress must approve this stopgap extension immediately, and then after the recess, extend the jobless programs through the end of 2010 so that we do not find ourselves in this situation again,” said Owens.

But Congress has gone on recess and will not be back until April 12.

Coburn is not called Dr. No for nothing—the list of bills he’s blocked over the years is truly epic. So maybe this is just Coburn being Coburn. Maybe it’s Senate Republicans extracting some blood because they’re made health care reform passed. They’ve made it abundantly clear they’re willing to hurt working people for their own political ends, and this could be that.

Whatever the reason is, the outcome is suffering around the country.

Tell your senator this must be priority one on April 12.

Tags: unemployment, unemployment extension