Emergency Unemployment Benefits Are Not Forgotten

As politicians have shifted their focus to a discussion of minimum wage this spring, addressing the December expiration of emergency unemployment benefits, retroactively, appeared increasingly difficult. However, the Senate now appears ready to raise the issue, again, nearly two months after the emergency benefits expired.

The number of Americans, who have been cut off from unemployment insurance due to congressional inaction, will swell to just under 2 million people as February draws to a close. Approximately 1.3 million Americans were abruptly cut off from the program on Dec. 28, 2013, and the number denied benefits will continue to grow without congressional action. More than $3 billion in unemployment checks has not been distributed to unemployed workers as a result of the program‘s expiration.

The cut in unemployment compensation will continue to exacerbate shortages at food banks, elevate mortgage delinquency rates, and inhibit the ability of job-seekers to continue their search, if no action is taken.

Payroll employment, the labor market participation rate, and long-term unemployment have still not returned to pre-recession levels, and robust job growth in the near term appears unlikely. For these reasons, efforts to extend emergency unemployment compensation have attracted bipartisan support, especially among conservatives in states still plagued with high unemployment. Nonetheless, only four Republican Senators supported moving forward with the proposal in a procedural vote in early February.

Extending emergency unemployment benefits is a vital piece of unfinished business for this Congress, and it is perhaps the only vehicle of its kind that could provide relief to job-seekers trying to make it in a tough market. An extension of the emergency unemployment compensation program (EUC) should continue to be pursed for the same reasons the minimum wage should be increased-- the economy is not working for the average American. We can, and should, help low-wage job workers, those working part-time for economic reasons, and unemployed job seekers.

For a breakdown of ongoing state-by-state impacts, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has produced a concise chart that extends through December 2014 here.

 

For Further Reading:

Emergency Unemployment Benefits Are Not ForgottenThe Fine Print blog, Feb. 26, 2014

Emergency Unemployment Benefits: Ways to Take ActionThe Fine Print blog, March 6, 2014

Emergency Unemployment Benefits: Time to Petition the GovernmentThe Fine Print blog, March 12, 2014

Emergency Unemployment Benefits: Compromise in the SenateThe Fine Print blog, March 14, 2014

Emergency Unemployment Benefits: Boehner Signals Reluctance in the HouseThe Fine Printblog, March 21, 2014

Emergency Unemployment Benefits Extension Clears First Hurdle in the SenateThe Fine Printblog, March 28, 2014

Extending Emergency Unemployment: Senate Finally Expected to Vote to Extend Benefits   and Rush through Corporate Tax CutsThe Fine Print blog, April 2, 2014

Emergency Unemployment Benefits Bill Passes the Senate, Increasing Pressure on the HouseThe Fine Print blog, April 8, 2014

Stories of Americans Cut Off of Emergency Unemployment CompensationGovernment Matters, April 22, 2014

Emergency Unemployment Extension Expected to Take Back Seat to Tax ExtendersThe Fine Print blog, April 25, 2014

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PLEASE!!!!! PASS THIS LAW FOR EUC BENEFITS...PLEASE...WE ARE STRUGGLING..NO FOOD...NO GAS TO LOOM FOR WORK..PLEASE GIVE US WHAT WE NEED...A SINGLE PARENT IN NEED..IM BEHIND ON MY CAR PAYMENT..BEHIND ON MY RENT..N I KNOW IM NOT THE ONLY ONE...THIS WORLD NEEDS THIS EUC TO PASS.PLEASE WE ARE STRUGGLING...;(
We have to unite to do this lets get the ones who aren't helping out of office. We are in this together so let's work to make the changes feel free to email me an lets try to find answers. As it appears of senate nor our president is helping when we need it most. Let us find our own answers get people that endorse an believe in what we believe in an really make a change. We need a new system to get what we need done. Its our homes getting taken our children going hungry an we are the ones doing without. I say no more!
Congress you will be judged by the hands of god REPENT!!
This is ridiculous! Everyone is not lazy! I have worked over half my life. I'm 35 and had a job since 14. I never had to apply for public assistance until now which I only qualify for the bare minimum since I don't have children. I been without a job since May 2013 and have applied to over one hundred jobs. It's exhausting to have to take over a hour long assessments and have over a decade experience for the recruiter to say you need a degree. I understand the importance of education but it seems to me that it doesn't matter what field your degree is in. It could be a B.A. in anthropology while applying for a retail position. It's conspiracy. To take out student loans and have to pay them back for rest of your life, not being able to land a job in your field your degree is in that boils down to you earning about 30,000 a year because you owe 1000 people. Something have to give. We need those benefits to make it through the storm. It's flat out disrespectful. It's not like the American people are not trying. I'm pissed because the government has slept on millions of people abusing the problem from the people that get disability checks and unemployment check to the folks that's been on unemployment extensions for 2 plus years. Now when it my turn for some assistance I get screwed. I expect this to happen when it's time for me to retired (probably 85yrs old) the government to let me know I don't have a pension but to get screwed at 35.....WOW! RELEASE THOSE UNEMPLOYMENT FUNDS
I can't believe our goverment would leave honest hard working people out to dry! It makes no sense at all that this is even still a topic of discussion...DO SOMETHING NOW!!! People are down to there last including myself, I worked so hard and to fault of my own was let go from my job and landed on unemployment which in hand expired in December which were all aware of and because of that I'm one step from being homeless forreal if the goverment doesn't do something imedately. Every day I'm constantly checking to see if any progress has been made on this issue and zero effort is made from the looks of things neither party really cares. Election time is around the corner so dem. & rep. Need to work together or ship out seriously
Senator (OH) who voted no after saying he would vote yes Rob Portman call him in Washington 202-224-3352 Senator (IN) same thing give him a call Dan Coates 202-224-5623 Senator (IL) Mark Kirk 202-224-2854 Let's make the calls an get there attention these are some of the ones that are responsible for what we are going threw an why because they want Democrats to make cuts in the budget an to make up for giving us our (EUC) benefits ask them why we have to make that sacrifice!
This is f"ed up! We worked and paid our taxes and for what? To be frowned up on because we lost our job so what ever reason. Obama is full of it too! I have a pen and a phone. I use to have a phone but now i cant pay the bill and my pen is out of ink from all the applications ive put in. So now i see how people can be pissed off at a government. They have no love for us at all, so i have none either. Plus im broke and hungry. I bad combanation, lord please give me strength...
I was working at my job for 23 years until last year. The company was sold and relocated to Delaware. I've been looking for a job since then. Now I have no source of income coming in. Can't pay my rent, cell bill, buy food, or keep gas in my car to even look for a job. This is ridiculous been pay my taxes for years I'm not a bum like the republicans seem to think. I've been paying my dues for many years. Something needs to be done and fast about passing the unempolyment bill ASAP.
Well for starters, last year when congress first faild us with not passing the budget for 2013. I lost my job to the sequestration. That's half of the start of my shit storm I'm in now. My wife went to jail for drugs and I had to walk away for my kids, a new single father in a world set up to help women. I was a contract employee for the army. When the sequestration happens, is contractors were first to go. I have been fighting to make ends meet all the time. I took a holiday job with the local amazon distribution center and lost half of my pay and got laid off by them right after Christmas. Now I have worked sense I was 15 and only drew unemployment for 3 months before this government screwing I took. I am 4 months down on rent, and all my bills. My landlord is great and has been working with me in these crappy times. My 67 year old parents have been helping out here and there when they can, and there even starting to become strapped to help me out. They keep voting themselves raises. They don't do ther jobs (pass budgets, help America) why are they still getting a paycheck. If I don't do my job, I get fired, what the hell makes them special?
I have started a Facebook group for us to support our cause and to hopefully open washing tons eyes that we are suffering and need that money to find a job it's under fight to restore extended unemployment by Theresa DiRocco