Unemployment extension bill would add fifth tier of benefits
Thursday, August 05, 2010 at 11:13 am
- 23 Comments
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 99 weeks of federal and state benefits.
The Americans Want to Work Act brings the maximum number of weeks to 119 in states with unemployment rates above 7.5 percent, meaning 34 states — including Minnesota — and the District of Columbia would currently qualify. (As of now, the states with unemployment rates over 8 percent qualify for the federal extension.) It also bolsters a tax credit for companies that hire workers who have been unemployed for more than two months.
Democratic Sens. Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Bob Casey (Pa.), Chris Dodd (Conn.), Dick Durbin (Ill.), Carl Levin (Mich.), Jack Reed (R.I.), Harry Reid (Nev.), Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) are cosponsors.
“Across our state, more than 35,000 people who have lost their jobs have also exhausted their unemployment insurance benefits. I know that these men and women want to work and have been trying their best to find jobs in this difficult economy,” Stabenow said in a statement. “My legislation cuts taxes for businesses that hire new workers who have been looking for work the longest. My bill also provides 20 more weeks of unemployment insurance to people in states like ours with the highest number of people out of work.”
The Tier V bill will prove popular among many, particularly the 99ers and the unemployed. But it will face a real uphill battle in the Senate. First, it needs the approval of the Senate Finance Committee, headed by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.). He has previously voiced opposition to Tier V. “You can’t go on forever,” he told Bloomberg News in April. “I think 99 weeks is sufficient.”
If the bill makes it out of committee, a process that can take weeks, it will need to get through a Senate allergic to deficit spending and increasingly recalcitrant on expanding programs for the jobless. Virtually all Republicans as well as Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) have indicated they will not vote for any expansion that increases the deficit. The full text of Stabenow’s bill has not yet been released, nor has the Congressional Budget Office scored it. But Stabenow’s release did not indicate the bill is offset, and cuts are increasingly hard to find. (This week, the Senate trimmed a food stamp extension to pay for a state-aid bill to keep up Medicaid funding and to save teachers’ jobs.)
Previously, Senate aides have told me that while numerous Senate Democrats support the fifth tier and other programs for the long-term unemployed, they hesitated to bring forward a bill they felt would never pass. The House, rather than expanding weeks of benefits, is looking at measures like expanding the TANF Emergency Contingency Fund.
“That was put in place after the recession hit to help states, basically to aid them in subsidizing jobs,” Ed Shelleby, spokesperson for Rep. Jim McDermott, told me. “It has hugely bipartisan support.”
Nevertheless, many labor economists feel the government needs to be doing more to help the jobless — and many legislators and Americans agree. Unemployment is worse now than it has been since the Great Depression. And the problem is not the height of the unemployment rate, but the duration of joblessness. Never before have unemployed workers been out of a job for so many weeks — a sign of fierce competition in the labor market, and the slowdown in the recovery.
The unemployed, already organized online, have recently joined with labor unions and other groups to lobby the Senate for increased benefits.
23 Comments
Comment posted August 5, 2010 @ 11:51 am
I saw that disgraceful thing called Deval Patrick on a Boston news station some weeks back. He stated that based on all economic indicators that the economy in Massachusetts is getting better.
Then, without even a commercial interuption (which would have lessened the comical impact) the next news story went to outside Boston City Hall where over a thousand Boston School teachers & janitors were protesting because they are getting laid off next school year!!
There was a story in the Boston Herald back in May that for teenagers looking for work this summer that it is WORSE THIS SUMMER THAN IT WAS BACK IN THE GREAT DEPRESSION!!
HOW MUCH BETTER CAN IT BE FOR ADULTS??
Come November Deval gets his pink-slip that disgraceful thing!!
Comment posted August 5, 2010 @ 6:07 pm
Leave the governor alone if the people working for him keep saying no he is human and is not gonna win whatsoever Why dont u shut up Del? If u think u can do better then hop on the bandwagon and help him Mr Perfect HOLLA!!!
Comment posted August 6, 2010 @ 2:43 pm
No Jojo….how about u shut up and realize we elect these people to help us and not be puppets. Look how silly u sound…. people tell him, comical, he isnt the damn president! His job is to GOVERN 1 STATE! Damn, if he cant do it I agree with Del get OUT!! I mean what are people voting for if you dont even know the purpose of the person nor their job description! MADNESS!
Comment posted August 9, 2010 @ 1:33 pm
i REALLY HOPE TIER 5 EXTENSION IS APPROVED BEFORE I GET HOMELESS,I DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO MY FAMILY DEPENDS ON ME, WE THE AmERICAN PEOPLE DO NOT DESERVE THIS, I HAVE WORK ALL MY LIFE , I LOST MY JOB BECAUSE OF THIS RECESSION IS NOT MY FAULT I CANNOT FIND ANY NOT EVEN TEMPORARY, WE SHOULD BE THINKING IN HELPING PEOPLE HERE IN THE US,instead off looking at other countryies for help, HOW ABOUT YOUR HOME, we have to FIXED first, i paid taxes all my life since i was 21yrs old and 57 and still paying, i have never been so poor in my life, i dont ever have a pension anymore.
PLEASE HELP!!!
Comment posted August 16, 2010 @ 4:22 pm
Let’s see what a;; the nay sayers have to say when 6 months or a year down the road thongs are still bad. The jobs out there aren’t enuff to keep people going. If you work part time it does not take you off unemployment if you are eligible, it reduces your unemployment on a weekly basis since it is required to report the wages. The end result is that you still get unemployment at a lower rates and it is based on pay before taxes so you loose a little. The weekly UI benefit for most is a lot of money and in most cases wont even pay the rent much less pay for food. Those who dislike it have no idea idea what it is like since they never have had to draw UI. I never did until 2008 and I worked hard for over 35 years.
Comment posted August 17, 2010 @ 3:01 pm
GOP, please cooperate with Democratic Party to approve Tier 5 Unemployment Extension as soon as possible. We need help during this very tough times and the global economy crisis!
Unfortunately, It does not matters how many tiers of Unemployment Extensions that the Congress is approving, We need to have a jobs so we won’t depend on these Tiers Unemployment Extensions. In order to put us back to work, the Congress needs to create more jobs!!! We do not want to living on the Unemployment checks. We need to have a job as soon as possible!!!
Comment posted August 21, 2010 @ 12:26 pm
I have looked EVERYWHERE for a job in many industries, nothing. Signed up with agencies, nothing…..you can send 55 million to pakastan but you can’t make arrangements for 5th tier unemployment extensions you need to get rid of red tape and get things done….I have about one check left coming do you like to make us wonder if we are homeless in less than a month and enough of this 3 month stuff…that means they end in the middle of winter make them 6 months of income it’s less stressful, you never know whether you have to put your stuff in storage and live on the street. WITH OUR KIDS.
Comment posted August 21, 2010 @ 4:12 pm
GB(Glen Beck) says everybody should work multiple jobs part time. Well GB that won’t pay rent or a mortgage. AT minimum wage you can’t make enuff. Also part time has no benefits so
u have to get help for medical and maybe food. Why have a Food Stamp program if nobody should use it. GB sits there making big bucks and tells us how lazy we are. He isn’t really working just selling lies fear! That’s easy in bad economic times. Hatred is also easy to sell since it is usually a way to blame others for what is wrong rather than those who are really at fault.
Comment posted August 26, 2010 @ 4:34 pm
well done my friends at the congress, now the 99rs can just wait a little while, what about MacDonald in the meanwhile, sure it pays some food
Comment posted August 27, 2010 @ 6:23 am
So C’Mon guys, please allow further added weeks to the maximum 99. What I really wonder is if they so approve the additional weeks how many additionaly weeks do you think they will add, and how many weeks do you honestly think they should add? It would have to be something substantial because if it would only be for something like an additionaly 6 weeks, how would that really even make much of a difference. Seems like no matter how many weeks they add, that number is always going to eventually run out and we will be back at the same place. I think that adding more weeks is very much needed but I also think that during those added weeks America really needs to find out how to create more work for when it all comes to an end again!
Comment posted September 23, 2010 @ 1:32 am
Any news for 99ers. It is getting scary that no development on this in the congress.
Comment posted October 5, 2010 @ 4:09 pm
I am on my last week of unemployment and no jobs in sight. At my age I should not have to worry about this. I’ve worked for 40 years and now nothing. They say the economy is getting better, things are looking up, jobs are opening up, where pray tell are they talking about? Because it sure isn’t in Central Minnesota. I heard not long ago that Brainerd alone had a 25% unemployment rate. HOW in the world is THAT better??
They won’t pay you retirement at my age,(I’m 8 years away from it) and I think they should. I think I should be able to retire, and get my benefits now. No one wants to hire older people any more even if they were hiring. Maybe that’s something that needs to change too. What do I do for the next 8 years if I can’t find work?
And you got people “wondering” why is there so many homeless….WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE!!!! people are homeless because the laws refuse to change to help those in need. Lets help all other countries b/4 we help our own! How is that helping us. People in other countries aren’t homeless but we are. WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE!!!
Comment posted October 22, 2010 @ 11:01 pm
I have a hard time understanding why the Republican party doesn’t want to vote to extend unemployment benefits, didn’t want Healthcare (for those who do not have insurance) and forgot tooth and nail for the increase in mininium wage. They seem to think us working for 5.75 an hour should make us happy. Of course they don’t want the Unions, either, because we might get lucky and actually make $12.00 an hour.
The $250 stimulus for seniors, disabled and bets did not pass because only one…….ONE……Republican voted with the Dems for it. Snowe R-ME. Republicans claim the stimulus created no jobs but yet nearly every Republican asked for a piece of it “to create jobs in their state”. Including Bachmann that complained about it the entire time she was asking for a piece of it.
Now we hear we received no tax breaks this year when in fact, we received 24 tax breaks. I do not get all the double talk.
Comment posted November 14, 2010 @ 5:51 pm
my unemployment will run out soon, and becaise i am one of the 99rs, i won’t get any more help. i sure hope the add tier 5 and at least make it for 6 months
Comment posted December 16, 2010 @ 12:10 pm
IMY CHECK WAS TAKEN WITHOUT EVEN BEING NOTIFIED-I WORKED ALL MY LIFE-MY JOB LOSS WAS DUE TO THE ECONOMY-AND NOW I AM GOING TO BE HOMELESS-THIS IS NOT FAIR-PLEASE –APPROVE THE EXTENSION FOR THE 99′S-THANKS YOU
Comment posted September 7, 2011 @ 5:01 am
it is past time for americian politicians to help the citizens that help them
Comment posted September 22, 2011 @ 1:29 pm
99 er’s Please help i’m so tired of begging? I look for employment three times a wk. Do you realize how much gas money is needed to go out a look for work?
Comment posted September 22, 2011 @ 1:39 pm
I’m a 99er i’m so tired of begging for a tier5? I look for employment at least 3 times a wk. Does anyone relize how mush gas money is needed to go out and look for work .What has happened to the Rep. party?Why do you stop everything that Obama wants? How can you sleep at night ? With all the hardship you cause? God help us all. ork?
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