by Arthur Delaney | Tuesday, July 6, 2010 The Huffington Post
It's been 35 days since Congress allowed unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless to expire. So far, more than 1.7 million people who've been out of work for longer than six months have been left hanging.
The 2009 stimulus bill and subsequent legislation had given the unemployed up to 99 weeks of checks. Without the federally-funded extended benefits, which lapsed at the end of May due to congressional deficit concerns, layoff victims in most states are eligible for only 26 weeks of help. The average duration of unemployment is 35 weeks.
Donna Ripley of Stockton, N.J. told HuffPost her 26 weeks ran out on May 29 -- one week after the eligibility deadline for the first "tier" of federally-funded benefits. "Needless to say that to miss the deadline because of one lousy week was extremely disappointing," Ripley wrote. "Silly me was still confident that our lawmakers would do the right thing and pass legislation to extend benefits... harsh reality has now set in. It has been four weeks without a check and times are tough."
Ripley added that she has had much difficulty getting through to a person at the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Marc Katz, a spokesman for the National Association of State Workforce Agencies, said the lapse has resulted in "more calls, more intensity, more confusion" at state labor departments.
"Customers are more desperate, more angry, and are less optimistic about the likelihood of Congress passing continued extensions," wrote a staffer in the Idaho Labor Department in an email to NASWA. "As one would expect, the customers who would have exhausted their latest tier and would have access to an additional tier except for this lapse are the most upset."
Steve Santos of Zion, Ill. said he applied for food stamps and has been "freaking out" since his checks stopped coming.
"My 26 weeks from the state ran out as Congress was not renewing the bill," said Santos, who is 55 and said he lost his job as a retail manager in November. "So because I did not lose my job til the 'end' of the recession or file until I absolutely had no choice, I get jobbed out of benefits?"
By the time Congress returns from its July 4 recess next week, more than 2.1 million will have missed checks. The House passed a bill to reauthorize the benefits last week; a similar bill failed in the upper chamber due to a Republican filibuster. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said that as soon as there is a replacement for the late Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), Democrats will have the 60 votes they need and the bill will pass. If Reid is correct, layoff victims will be paid retroactively for any missed checks.
Without a reauthorization, 3.2 million long-term unemployed will have found themselves ineligible for extended benefits by the end of the month. If Congress fails to act, it will be the first time since at least the 1950s that federally-funded extended benefits have been allowed to lapse with a national unemployment rate above 7.2 percent.
"I received my last check on June 24th. If Congress doesn't approve the extension, I will have no money," said Shanae Dale of Louisville, Ky, who said she was laid off in December. "I will not be able to pay my rent, car insurance, utility bills or buy groceries. I would like to know how many of the members of Congress can't sleep at night because the only thing that occupies their minds is finding a job and paying bills."
Showing posts with label extension. Show all posts
Showing posts with label extension. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Monday, March 1, 2010
Obama gives Patriot Act another year with no privacy protections
"What we cannot continue to do is operate as if we are the weakest nation in the world instead of the strongest one, because that’s not who we are and that’s not what the US has been about, historically. It is starting to warp our domestic policies, as well. We haven’t even talked about civil liberties and the impact of that politics of fear--what that has done to us, in terms of undermining basic civil liberties in this country, what it has done in terms of our reputation around the world."
Barack Obama
2007 Democratic debate at Drexel University Oct 30, 2007
Mr. President, must you disappoint at every turn?
Obama gives Patriot Act another year with no privacy protections
By Andrew McLemore
Saturday, February 27th, 2010
If the Patriot Act hadn't been approved for another year, Sunday would have looked much different.
Sunday could have meant the government was no longer given permission to wiretap the phones of Americans and seize their records and property.
But since the bill was approved by Congressional Democrats earlier this week and signed into law by President Obama on Saturday, this Sunday is just another Sunday for Americans living with the Patriot Act.
To be fair, many Democrats asked for additional protections for the privacy rights of American citizens.
But Republicans said that would detract from the ability of the country's intelligence agencies to track down terrorists. Lacking a 60-vote supermajority in the Senate to pass the bill with the extra provisions, Democrats left them out.
Democratic Rep. Jane Harman opposed the House's approval of the extension, citing abuses during the administration of President George W. Bush.
"While I strongly support using the most robust tools possible to go after terrorists, Congress must revise and narrow -- not extend -- Bush era policies," Harman said.
Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com had the following to say of the overwhelming support of the law's extension:
One of the strangest prongs of conventional Beltway wisdom is the lament that there is not enough bipartisanship. The opposite is true: many of the most damaging acts inflicted on the country by Washington are enacted on a fully bipartisan basis -- the most destructive political act of this generation, the invasion of Iraq, was fully bipartisan, as were most of the post-9/11 civil liberties abuses and other Bush-era initiatives-- and, at least in certain areas, the harmonious joining together of Republicans and Democrats continues unabated.
Most publications and politicians expected Obama to sign the Patriot Act.
Friday, February 26, 2010
One Guy Repeatedly Blocks Unemployment Benefits Extension
Jim Bunning Repeatedly Blocks Unemployment Benefits Extension, Tells Dem 'Tough Shit'
02-26-10 12:42 PM
Jim Bunning, a Republican from Kentucky, is single-handedly blocking Senate action needed to prevent an estimated 1.2 million American workers from prematurely losing their unemployment benefits next month.
As Democratic senators asked again and again for unanimous consent for a vote on a 30-day extension Thursday night, Bunning refused to go along.
And when Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) begged him to drop his objection, Politico reports, Bunning replied: "Tough shit."
Bunning says he doesn't oppose extending benefits -- he just doesn't want the money that's required added to the deficit. He proposes paying for the 30-day extension with stimulus funds. The Senate's GOP leadership did not support him in his objections.
And at one point during the debate, which dragged on till nearly midnight, Bunning complained of missing a basketball game.
"I have missed the Kentucky-South Carolina game that started at 9:00," he said,"and it's the only redeeming chance we had to beat South Carolina since they're the only team that has beat Kentucky this year.
The unemployment rate in Kentucky is 10.7 percent.
The stakes are enormous: provisions of last year's stimulus bill that allow extra weeks of unemployment benefits and COBRA health coverage are set to expire on Feb. 28. State workforce agencies have already sent out letters informing recipients that they'll be ineligible for extra "tiers" of benefits starting next month. The National Employment Law Project estimates that 1.2 million people will prematurely lose benefits in March.
Judy Conti, a lobbyist for the NELP, said that even when Bunning is eventually thwarted and the extension is passed, state governments will still have to deal with the extra administrative costs of shutting down and restarting the extended benefits programs.
"Once the program is retroactively reauthorized, the federal government is going to send the same amount of money, but his own state government is going to have to spend even more money," Conti said.
"What happened last night was an absolute disgrace. There is a time and a place a purpose for debate on deficit reduction, but you don't make your stand on the back of the unemployed. It is ill-informed, counter productive and just cruel."
Daily Kos produced a video of Bunning's obstruction:
UPDATE 12:00 PM -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) made a last-minute attempt on Friday morning to get Bunning to let the Senate move forward with extending benefits.
"We talk a lot in the Senate about procedure. Our debate sometimes relates only to procedure. And often that's appropriate," Reid said. "And, as we know, sometimes these procedural rules we have in the Senate are complex. But the issue before us today is not something that's arcane, very ritualistic or complex. It's very simple. And it's clear -- clear that it's going to be a lot more noticeable by people Monday morning, because it's going to affect the lives of thousands of Americans and their livelihoods.
"By Monday morning tens of thousands of Nevadans and more than one million Americans who rely on unemployment insurance and health benefits will simply lose them."
(The National Employment Law Project estimates that 1.2 million people will lose their benefits over the course of March, not at all once on Monday.)
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) took the floor after Reid to stick up for Bunning. He noted that there is broad bipartisan support for extending benefits, but said Bunning was right to take a stand against adding $10 billion to the deficit. He also pointed out that the jobs bill that Reid scrapped two weeks ago, crafted by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.), contained an extension of UI and COBRA.
"I admire the courage of the junior senator from Kentucky," he said. "Somebody has to stand up finally and say, 'No more inter-generational theft!'"
And with that, the Senate adjourned for the weekend.
02-26-10 12:42 PM
Jim Bunning, a Republican from Kentucky, is single-handedly blocking Senate action needed to prevent an estimated 1.2 million American workers from prematurely losing their unemployment benefits next month.
As Democratic senators asked again and again for unanimous consent for a vote on a 30-day extension Thursday night, Bunning refused to go along.
And when Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) begged him to drop his objection, Politico reports, Bunning replied: "Tough shit."
Bunning says he doesn't oppose extending benefits -- he just doesn't want the money that's required added to the deficit. He proposes paying for the 30-day extension with stimulus funds. The Senate's GOP leadership did not support him in his objections.
And at one point during the debate, which dragged on till nearly midnight, Bunning complained of missing a basketball game.
"I have missed the Kentucky-South Carolina game that started at 9:00," he said,"and it's the only redeeming chance we had to beat South Carolina since they're the only team that has beat Kentucky this year.
The unemployment rate in Kentucky is 10.7 percent.
The stakes are enormous: provisions of last year's stimulus bill that allow extra weeks of unemployment benefits and COBRA health coverage are set to expire on Feb. 28. State workforce agencies have already sent out letters informing recipients that they'll be ineligible for extra "tiers" of benefits starting next month. The National Employment Law Project estimates that 1.2 million people will prematurely lose benefits in March.
Judy Conti, a lobbyist for the NELP, said that even when Bunning is eventually thwarted and the extension is passed, state governments will still have to deal with the extra administrative costs of shutting down and restarting the extended benefits programs.
"Once the program is retroactively reauthorized, the federal government is going to send the same amount of money, but his own state government is going to have to spend even more money," Conti said.
"What happened last night was an absolute disgrace. There is a time and a place a purpose for debate on deficit reduction, but you don't make your stand on the back of the unemployed. It is ill-informed, counter productive and just cruel."
Daily Kos produced a video of Bunning's obstruction:
UPDATE 12:00 PM -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) made a last-minute attempt on Friday morning to get Bunning to let the Senate move forward with extending benefits.
"We talk a lot in the Senate about procedure. Our debate sometimes relates only to procedure. And often that's appropriate," Reid said. "And, as we know, sometimes these procedural rules we have in the Senate are complex. But the issue before us today is not something that's arcane, very ritualistic or complex. It's very simple. And it's clear -- clear that it's going to be a lot more noticeable by people Monday morning, because it's going to affect the lives of thousands of Americans and their livelihoods.
"By Monday morning tens of thousands of Nevadans and more than one million Americans who rely on unemployment insurance and health benefits will simply lose them."
(The National Employment Law Project estimates that 1.2 million people will lose their benefits over the course of March, not at all once on Monday.)
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) took the floor after Reid to stick up for Bunning. He noted that there is broad bipartisan support for extending benefits, but said Bunning was right to take a stand against adding $10 billion to the deficit. He also pointed out that the jobs bill that Reid scrapped two weeks ago, crafted by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.), contained an extension of UI and COBRA.
"I admire the courage of the junior senator from Kentucky," he said. "Somebody has to stand up finally and say, 'No more inter-generational theft!'"
And with that, the Senate adjourned for the weekend.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Senate votes to renew Patriot Act
Protected by oppression...
Senate votes to renew Patriot Act
The Senate Wednesday evening passed a one-year extension to the Patriot Act, a Bush-era homeland security law that has been much maligned by Democrats but described by Republicans as key to the war on terror.
Several key components of the law are set to expire Sunday, including wire-tapping, surveillance and seizure provisions. If passed by the House, they will expire on Feb. 28, 2011.
The law was passed by voice vote, which does not require debate on the Senate floor.
Democrats have been extremely critical of the law, which has been described as overreaching and reactionary. Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), in a statement Wednesday, said he "would have preferred to add oversight and judicial review improvements" to the act's renewal.
Senate votes to renew Patriot Act
The Senate Wednesday evening passed a one-year extension to the Patriot Act, a Bush-era homeland security law that has been much maligned by Democrats but described by Republicans as key to the war on terror.
Several key components of the law are set to expire Sunday, including wire-tapping, surveillance and seizure provisions. If passed by the House, they will expire on Feb. 28, 2011.
The law was passed by voice vote, which does not require debate on the Senate floor.
Democrats have been extremely critical of the law, which has been described as overreaching and reactionary. Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), in a statement Wednesday, said he "would have preferred to add oversight and judicial review improvements" to the act's renewal.
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