Arthur Delaney notes that Congress, when it returns from campaigning and the midterm elections, will only have seven working days to reauthorize extended unemployment benefits before they expire. Last time around, it took 50 working days — more than two months, total:
Congress has blown reauthorization deadlines for extended
Today, Democratic Sens. Debbie Stabenow (Mich.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) took to the Senate floor to argue for the Americans Want to Work Act, a bill extending the maximum number of weeks of unemployment insurance benefits to 119. The legislation also extends the HIRE Act payroll tax exemption and More…
This morning, I recapped the current legislative efforts to further extend unemployment benefits and aid the millions who have been out of work for more than six months:
Today, returned from the six-week August recess to vote on the state aid bill, House Democrats put forward legislation to create a fifth tier of unemployment benefits. Last week, Senate Democrats put forward similar legislation. Reps. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.) and Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) cosponsored the legislation creating a fifth More…
Today, the Senate went on its August recess, without passing the small business bill, the unemployment extension for 99ers (which is still under consideration by the Finance Committee) or many other provisions. It also failed to get to the nomination of Peter Diamond, a lauded economist named More…
Yesterday, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) introduced a bill to provide extra weeks of federally paid-for unemployment insurance benefits for the 99ers — the pool of 1.4 million Americans workers who have exhausted their maximum weeks of federal and state benefits.
The Americans Want to Work Act brings the maximum More…
Last week, I wrote a story on nascent movements to organize the unemployed, a group already connected via enormous online networks and politically fired-up after the eight-month battle in Congress over federally extended unemployment insurance benefits. For those labor groups and online organizations helping the unemployed flex their More…
Over at The National Review, Josh Barro has a good blog post on extending the unemployment insurance system during sustained periods of high joblessness.
I am inclined to favor further extension of UI benefits while the job market remains so weak.
In the unemployed netroots this week, rumors abounded that Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) might be planning legislation for the exhaustees or the 99ers — those who have run out of the maximum number of state and federal unemployment benefits.
Arthur Delaney at the Huffington Post notes that Schumer More…
Sometime this spring, Republicans turned against unemployment. In Nevada, Sharron Angle (R), the candidate facing incumbent Sen. Harry Reid (D), told local reporters, “You can make more money on unemployment than you can going down and getting one of those jobs that is an honest job.” (Untrue.) Angle also called More…
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