Posted by John Irons at November 25, 2002 07:59 PM

The Washington Post reported that the House of Representatives has put off extending unemployment insurance for over 800,000 workers whose coverage ends December 28th. As a result, checks will not be sent out at least until Congress reconvenes in January.

Both the House and the Senate had approved different bipartisan versions of bills to extend benefits (the Senate version was drafted by an unlikely pair of senators: H. Clinton (D) and D. Nichols (R)). However a final vote never happened.

I might suggest that Congress shouldn't be paid either for the period after December 28th and before they themselves return to work.

From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: All Unemployed Workers Will Lost Temporary Federal Help on December 29 Unless House Acts on Friday, revised 11/21/02

On Friday, November 22, the House of Representatives will have one last chance to prevent the federal temporary unemployment benefits program from expiring on December 28. The Senate has adjourned for the year, and the only option left for continuing this program is for the House to adopt bipartisan Senate legislation to extend this program for three months.

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If the House fails to act, the consequences for the unemployed will be immediate and dramatic:

* At the end of the year an estimated 830,000 jobless workers who will be receiving these benefits will have them cut off immediately.

* Starting on December 29, an additional 95,000 jobless workers per week will run out of state unemployment benefits without finding a job and get no temporary federal unemployment assistance.[1]

* By the end of March, a total of 2.1 million jobless workers will not receive temporary benefits who would receive them under the Senate bill. (See Table 1 for state-by-state data.)

[snip]

Finally, letting the TEUC program expire is precisely the wrong step to take when there is widespread agreement about the need for more, not less, economic stimulus. Letting the program expire will diminish economic demand among unemployed workers.

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