November 24, 2010

Ahead of Thanksgiving, Casey Urges Vote to Preserve Unemployment Insurance 
After Thanksgiving, two million Americans and 83,000 in PA to lose coverage

WASHINGTON, DC—U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) has organized an effort joined by 28 senators to call for a vote to preserve unemployment insurance for another year.  Without action, these benefits for workers who lost their job through no fault of their own will begin to expire on Tuesday, November 30.  In a letter to be sent to Senate leadership, the senators urge a continuation of the unemployment benefits program through December 31, 2011.

“As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving, two million Americans and 83,000 Pennsylvanians are forced to worry about losing vital support next month that helps them keep food on the table and pay their bills,” said Senator Casey.  “Unless Congress acts to preserve these benefits these families and the economy will suffer.”
 
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, if Congress fails to take action, two million workers will lose their unemployment benefits this December.   Each month after that, over one million more would fall off the rolls.  By April 2011, six million workers would be without benefits.
 
The senators wrote: “Currently, the national unemployment rate is 9.6 percent.  At the current rate, without a reauthorization, we would cut the life line that millions of Americans use to stay afloat.  Equally importantly, we would endanger our fragile economic recovery by reducing the amount Americans spend on groceries, utilities and other basic needs.”
 
Preserving unemployment benefits will not only provide vital assistance to laid off workers and their families, it will have a significant benefit to the economy.  Goldman Sachs has said that an expiration of unemployment benefits would cause economic growth to fall by half a percentage point.  The Economic Policy Institute has said that extending benefits would increase the gross domestic product by 0.7 percent and create the full-time equivalent of 723,000 jobs.  A U.S. Department of Labor report commissioned by the Bush Administration found that unemployment benefits in the saved 1.6 million jobs per quarter and lowered the unemployment rate by 1.2 percent.
 
The letter is signed by Senators Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI), Mark Begich (D-AK), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Roland W. Burris (D-IL), Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD), Christopher J. Dodd (D-CT), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Al Franken (D-MN), Kirsten E. Gillibrand (D-NY), Tom Harkin (D-IA), John F. Kerry (D-MA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ), Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT), Carl Levin (D-MI), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD), Patty Murray (D-WA), Jack Reed (D-RI), John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV), Bernard Sanders (I-VT), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Tom Udall (D-NM), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Ron Wyden (D-OR).