While the private sector has shown modest job gains in recent months, additional action is needed.  This is why the House is returning to session next week to pass legislation that will save and create 290,000 American jobs (140,000 teacher jobs saved and 150,000 jobs created or saved, including police officers, firefighters and nurses). 

-by Lauren Bloomberg

 The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) released a new report on Monday, underscoring the need to extend the Emergency Fund for Job Creation and Assistance program that is set to expire on September 30, 2010.  The program helps States immediately support job programs and is estimated to have helped create hundreds of thousands of jobs (including private sector) in States across the country since its inception in 2009. Yesterday, Chairman Levin introduced legislation to extend the program for a year.

Calling the program a “bright spot” in the recovering economy, CBPP illustrates the impact of allowing the program to expire in States across the country:

“… some of these programs have already stopped taking applications in anticipation of the fund’s September 30 expiration, and most programs will shut down or significantly scale back their operations on that date (see Figure 1). Unless Congress extends the fund, tens of thousands of people across the country will lose jobs — potentially raising the unemployment rate in places with particularly large programs, such as Illinois and Los Angeles. Such job losses are both troubling and unnecessary: the House has twice passed extensions that were fully offset to avoid increasing the deficit, but the Senate has thus far failed to act.”

States can draw on the Emergency Fund, created by the 2009 Recovery Act, to create subsidized jobs in the private and public sectors for low-income individuals who otherwise would be unemployed. Officials in the 37 states (including the District of Columbia) operating these jobs programs estimate that by September, they will have placed more than 240,000 unemployed parents and their teenage children in subsidized jobs funded in whole or in part by the fund (see Figure 2 and Appendix A). That number would grow substantially if states had another year to operate their programs.

Examples of [the program] at work include:

• South Carolina is using the program to provide jobs to parents who would otherwise be receiving cash assistance through the state’s regular TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) program.
• Illinois has placed more than 20,000 individuals in jobs, far exceeding its original goal of 12,000 placements.
• Alabama is using the program to provide jobs to TANF recipients statewide, but has found it especially helpful in rural communities where very few job opportunities exist.
• North Dakota is providing jobs for unemployed non-custodial parents who don’t have the financial resources to meet their child support
• A rural community in Tennessee created 400 new jobs and helped reduce the county’s unemployment rate from 27.3 to 18.6 percent over an eight-month period.

Emergency Fund for Job Creation and Assistance program has the strong support of several Republicans.  Haley Barbour, the Republican Governor of Mississippi, called it a welfare to work program and urged for an extension.  In fact, despite Congressional Republican objection, a number of Republicans outside the Washington beltway have lauded the program as an effective mechanism to create jobs and help families.

• On a bipartisan basis, the National Governors Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures, and the National Association of Counties have all urged Congress to continue the program as a way to create jobs and help families.
• Kevin Hassett of the conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI) writes, “Given the state of the labor market, it is hard to imagine how any sensible person could oppose [extending the emergency fund].”  “If they are to be more than the party of no, Republicans need to rally around the Democrats who have shown such reserved pragmatism.”

Click here to view the letters.

- by Lauren Bloomberg

“It is absolutely the most fundamentally decent and compassionate thing to do,” said John Sarbanes. Yet as Senate Republicans stall the bill, the number keeps growing, and more Americans face the very real threats of poverty and homelessness instead of receiving the unemployment benefits that they not only need, but, as Rep. Donna Edwards said, “they deserve.”

Click here for additional information on unemployment insurance.

-by Lauren Bloomberg 

Click here for additional information about Unemployment Insurance 

-by Lauren Bloomberg

Before going out of session yesterday, the Senate failed to pass an extension of benefits.  Chairman Levin noted,   the only reason this extension has not passed the Senate in recent days is because there could not be found more than two Republicans to vote for this extension. Chairman Levin noted that:

Click here for additional information. 

- by Lauren Bloomberg

Senate inaction leaves 1.2 million unemployed workers without benefits by the end of the week

During debate on legislation to block a 21 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors, Chairman Levin blasted Senate Republicans for obstructing H.R. 4213, the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act, job-creating legislation which includes both Medicare physician payment provisions and an extension of critical unemployment benefits for millions of Americans who have lost their job through no fault of their own: 

“They [Senate Republicans] are willing to put politics before people, and they are leaving millions of unemployed workers thrown out of work by this recession through no fault of their own, without their unemployment insurance benefits,” said Levin. “Instead, they seem willing to let loopholes that permit jobs to be shipped overseas continue to remain open. Republicans, in a word are saying to the American people that they care more about their political futures than they do the daily lives of millions and millions of Americans. We will not let that stand. We will continue to stand on is the side of seniors and the physicians who treat them, on the side of unemployed workers and their families. On the side of millions who are looking for jobs. On the side of youth seeking employment. And on the side of those who would benefit from tax measures and bond measures that are supporting millions of jobs.

- by Lauren Bloomberg

Income Security and Family Support Subcommittee Chairman Jim McDermott (D-WA) answers some questions about unemployment insurance: