An unemployment extension was rejected in Congress on Thursday, Nov. 18. The bill, House Resolution 6419—Emergency Unemployment Compensation Continuation Act, would have extended jobless benefits for those currently unemployed and receiving federal funds.
People whose unemployment insurance has already expired would not have been included. Legislators voted 258-154 not to add to the current extension, which is set to end Nov. 30. Had it passed, unemployed people would have received interim checks until Feb. 28.
Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) sponsored the bill, which had 34 co-sponsors, and told the Wall St. Journal after the vote that “the message to four million Americans will be the Republican Party doesn’t care whether you have a Christmas or a way to fund your mortgage or a way to put food on the table for the next three months.”
Unemployed workers were cut off from benefits in an earlier dispute between legislators. When Congress voted to extend the insurance, those out of work received retroactive payments, covering the weeks they had nothing.
Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project, called the wrangling over jobless benefits “a game of chicken” in an editorial on her organization’s website.
Congressman John Boehner wrote in a Nov. 12 statement that “A clear message has been sent by the American people. Fed up with all the ‘stimulus’ spending sprees, the takeovers and bailouts of the last 22 months, Americans have repudiated Washington, repudiated big government, and repudiated a tax-and-spend agenda that is killing American jobs.”
People whose unemployment insurance has already expired would not have been included. Legislators voted 258-154 not to add to the current extension, which is set to end Nov. 30. Had it passed, unemployed people would have received interim checks until Feb. 28.
Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) sponsored the bill, which had 34 co-sponsors, and told the Wall St. Journal after the vote that “the message to four million Americans will be the Republican Party doesn’t care whether you have a Christmas or a way to fund your mortgage or a way to put food on the table for the next three months.”
Unemployed workers were cut off from benefits in an earlier dispute between legislators. When Congress voted to extend the insurance, those out of work received retroactive payments, covering the weeks they had nothing.
Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project, called the wrangling over jobless benefits “a game of chicken” in an editorial on her organization’s website.
Congressman John Boehner wrote in a Nov. 12 statement that “A clear message has been sent by the American people. Fed up with all the ‘stimulus’ spending sprees, the takeovers and bailouts of the last 22 months, Americans have repudiated Washington, repudiated big government, and repudiated a tax-and-spend agenda that is killing American jobs.”
