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.