Extension Update - July 16th, 2010

Extension Update – July 16th, 2010

Background

  • Eligibility for additional tiers of Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) expired on June 2nd.
  • Since then, 2.1 million people have lost their unemployment benefits.

New Legislation

  • The House of Representatives passed legislation (HR 5618) that would extend eligiblity through the end of November. The bill would also make benefits retroactive to June 2nd.
  • For the bill to become law, it must receive enough votes in the Senate, and then be sent to the President for approval.
  • So far, the required number of votes (60) in the Senate have not been met.

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What’s Changed?

  • The Democratic Senators in favor of the bill were short one vote because of the passing of Senator Robert Byrd from West Virginia.
  • Today, the governor of West Virginia named Carte Goodwin as a successor to Senator Byrd.
  • Goodwin is to be sworn in on Tuesday (July 20th), and has indicated that he will support the extension.

What Next

  • It is now very likely that a new vote will take place next week after Senator Goodwin is sworn in.
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Tags: , , , | Category: News, Unemployment

The Unemployment Extension — What Will Congress Do?

Another month, another unemployment extension debate …

Deciding whether or not to extend unemployment benefits has become a recurring theme in Washington this year.

As Congress comes back to work this week (July 12th) after their week-long July 4th vacation, an extension debate is again in the works. This time, the proposal in the works (H.R. 5618) would extend eligibility for Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) through the end of November.

When passed, this would allow you to continue receiving the various tiers of EUC. For some, this could mean the difference between getting only 26 weeks of benefits and 79 weeks of benefits.

While already passed by the House of Representatives, the Senate is still short of the 60 votes required to pass the bill.

Will it happen? Only time will tell. There will likely be a vote next week (July 19th), or during the final week of this month (July 26th).

 

Are you one of the 3.2 million Americans impacted by this decision? Feel free to share your thoughts below.

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Tags: , | Category: Unemployment