Norton Relieved Congress Passed Unemployment Benefits Extension, Yet Outraged at the Delay
Norton Relieved Congress Passed Unemployment Benefits Extension, Yet Outraged at the Delay
WASHINGTON, DC -- Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), who has championed the extension of unemployment insurance benefits, expressed relief at final passage of the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act yesterday. The emergency legislation extends unemployment insurance benefits for 7,600 D.C. residents. "Republicans shut down benefits for D.C. residents and other Americans during the deepest recession in memory," said Norton. "Unemployment insurance benefits are an immediate stimulus to the economy because they are spent immediately. Always in the past, unemployment funds have been authorized as emergency spending with bipartisan majorities and the urging of conservative and liberal economists. Not until a 60th vote came with the new Democratic West Virginia Senator was the bill passed, while desperate unemployed workers have been without benefits since May." The bill provides emergency unemployment insurance benefits through November 30, 2010 and retroactively restores benefits to people who may have begun losing them as early as May.
Norton said that it was "unconscionable to play partisan games at the expense of unemployed Americans." She said that even in mild economic downturns, Congress has swiftly passed extensions of unemployment insurance, and that such funds are desperately needed today, when there is only one job for every five Americans looking for work.