Maloney Calls On Congress To Extend Unemployment Benefits
BY JOHN TOSCANO

Congressmember Carolyn Maloney called on Congress to pass pending legislation that would provide an immediate 13-week extension of unemployment benefits for 3.2 million jobless Americans who are looking for work.

"Labor market conditions today are already as bad as or worse than when unemployment benefits were extended in previous recessions, so there is no reason to wait to provide additional benefits to unemployed workers now," Maloney reasoned.

"Extending unemployment benefits would help families continue spending on basic living expenses and simultaneously provide an extra boost to our weakening economy," she added.

Maloney (D- Queens/Manhattan), who is vice chair of the Joint Economic Committee (JEC), said that according to a recently published JEC report, evidence is mounting that the unemployment picture is worse than when unemployment insurance (UI) was extended during previous recessions. She noted:

•Long-term unemployment is at recession levels and already higher than when Congress extended UI benefits in the 2001 and 1990- 91 recessions.

•1.3 million workers have been out of work and searching for new jobs for at least six months.

•Unemployed individuals claiming UI benefits recently rose above 400,000 per week, a level at which economists typically consider the labor market to be in a recession.

•The share of the U.S. population with a job never fully recovered from the 2001 recession and is lower now than it was the last time UI benefits were extended.

•More than one in three unemployed workers (35.6 percent) exhausted their UI benefits last quarter.

•More than 1.3 million workers will exhaust their UI benefits between January and June 2008.

Maloney said the JEC paper suggested three specific ways to expand unemployment insurance:

1) Provide extended benefits to workers whose regular unemployment compensation has expired.

2) Supplement the amount of benefits paid to unemployment compensation recipients, and

3) Modernize the UI system to cover more unemployed workers, including more parttime and low-wage workers.

In addition to immediately providing up to 13 weeks of extended unemployment benefits to workers exhausting regular unemployment compensation in every state, the Emergency Extended Unemployment Compensation Act, which Maloney supports, would also provide an additional 13 weeks, for a total of 26, in states with high unemployment (6 percent or higher).

The benefits would run through January 2009 and be financed by the federal unemployment trust funds, which now have more than enough reserves to cover the cost.