From the office of Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, who represents Middletown in the U.S. House of Representatives.------------
Congressman Rosa DeLauro (CT-3) will host a roundtable discussion on Emergency hear from Connecticut residents who are facing the loss of their federal emergency unemployment compensation tomorrow, December 18 at 1:00 p.m., in City Hall. She will be joined by Bill Villano, Executive Director of CT Workforce Alliance, and Connecticut residents receiving Emergency Unemployment Compensation
DeLauro has repeatedly called for these benefits to be extended, but Republican leadership sent the House of Representatives home for the year without doing so.
Due to that inaction, emergency unemployment benefits will expire on December 28. In CT, 26,000 people will lose a crucial lifeline in the middle of the holiday season. Nationwide, 1.3 million people will see their benefits cease, with that number growing to 1.9 million by June, about 28,700 of them in CT. By the end of 2014 that number will grow to 85,100 in CT.
DeLauro had called for an extension of emergency benefits to be included in the budget deal recently passed by the House of Representatives. That deal is now waiting for Senate approval.
unemployment compensation was meant to assist until that person finds a job. Now its becoming a way of life for too many. 99 weeks is enough to be on entitlements. If someone is pressured to work, by cutting funding, they will find a job.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous 2:10 PM
ReplyDeleteThat's like saying "health care insurance encourages people to get sick. If they didn't have health care, they wouldn't be in the hospital so much".
It's not the person's fault if they're jobless, just like it's not the person's fault if they're sick. Sure, some people abuse the system, but you can't throw the baby out with the bathwater by cutting funding for the whole program.
The government should slash bloated military spending instead of vital social welfare programs like unemployment compensation.
The Dec 17th anonymous comment got it wrong: Unemployment benefits lasts 26 weeks, then the person can re-apply for emergency benefits for another 26 weeks for a total of 52 weeks. The uproar is due to the House and Senate bills not extending emergency benefits beyond 52 weeks to a total of 99 weeks. In the past when there's been extenuating circumstances, emergency unemployment benefits has always been extended to 99 weeks... since the Eisenhower administration, with broad bi-partisan support.
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