Senate Dems Make New Unemployment Insurance Push

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2014/06/06/Senate-Dems-Make-New-Unemployment-Insurance-Push

BY ROB GARVER, The Fiscal Times
June 6, 2014

Senate Democrats say that they have gone back to work on their effort to renew a federal program that supplements state-level unemployment insurance for the long-term jobless. But they appear to have given up on the effort to make the benefit extension retroactive to the end of 2013, when Congress allowed the program to expire.

The news is bittersweet for advocates for the jobless, who this Spring watched a bi-partisan Senate bill, which included a retroactivity provision, wither and die as the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives refused to allow a vote on the measure. The House GOP leaders also prevented an unemployment insurance extension bill introduced by members of their own party from coming to the floor.

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The issue at hand is a federal program that supplements state-level unemployment benefits after they expire. State benefits typically run out after about 26 weeks. However, during times of extended high unemployment, Congress has typically authorized a federally funded extension. At one point during the Great Recession, benefits extended to 99 weeks, though they were eventually cut back to 72 weeks.

In December, Congress failed to renew the extension of federal benefits, meaning that someone who lost a job in June of last year saw their benefits cut off after six months, while a neighbor who lost a job in January of 2013 benefited from a full year of unemployment benefits. The number of unemployed workers affected is now in the neighborhood of 3 million.

The Senate, in March, passed its bill renewing the federal extension for five months, and promising retroactive payments back to the end of December. Despite its bipartisan support in the Senate, though, House Speaker John Boehner has so far kept the bill from getting a vote on the House floor.

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