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Pressure on Congress to renew jobless benefitsAlmost 800,000 lost emergency aid when program ended
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- One of the first tasks facing the new Congress when it convenes next week will be to renew a federally funded unemployment benefits program, which the House and Senate failed to extend before adjourning for the year. Almost 800,000 jobless workers lost their benefits at midnight Saturday when the program expired. Pressure is growing on both parties and houses of Congress to act quickly in January to aid displaced workers. The emergency program extended state-funded benefits by 13 weeks in most states and by 26 weeks in three states with the highest unemployment levels -- Oregon, Washington and Alaska -- and ended December 28. During the recession of the early 1990s, Congress passed extensions of up to 30 weeks. Before leaving Washington for the holidays, the Senate and House both passed bills that would have kept the extended benefits going. But they were unable to reach a compromise on a single bill for the president's signature. The Senate passed a more extensive -- and more expensive -- bill that would have extended eligibility for benefits to even more out-of-work people. The Senate bill would have maintained current benefits for unemployed people for another three months. The House version would have cut the amount each family received and extended benefits for five weeks. Those who lost their benefits Saturday "join another million jobless workers who have already exhausted all of their unemployment benefits," according to the AFL-CIO's Web site. "In addition, some 95,000 jobless workers will run out of state unemployment benefits each week and be left without jobs or temporary federal unemployment assistance," the Web site said, quoting a Washington think tank. AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney called the cutoff of the benefits extension "an economic catastrophe." "The Republican leadership in the House of Representatives and President Bush should feel ashamed," Sweeney said. Bush: Extension first order of businessIn his last two weekly radio addresses, Bush called on the next Congress "to make the extension of unemployment benefits" a priority when it convenes in January. Bush also has said those who are cut off December 28 should have their benefits extended retroactively to that date.
U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-New York, blamed the Republican-controlled House for not accepting the Senate version of the extension. "We passed a bipartisan bill in the Senate," she said Saturday in the Democrats' weekly radio address. "But the House Republican leadership refused to pass this bill. They ran out the clock and went home for the holidays, without even allowing a simple vote." Clinton said she was pleased with Bush's announced support for an extension but added that she wished "he could have made that statement several weeks earlier, in time for the holidays."
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The Republican leadership in the House of Representatives and President Bush should feel ashamed.
