The sudden loss of employment can be devastating. In these uncertain times it is only right for Congress to provide these displaced workers with a little peace of mind. I am disappointed the House adjourned before addressing this issue and I voted against the Continuing Resolution, which allowed Congress to adjourn before its work was complete, for that very reason.

On Jan 8th, I voted with 416 of my House colleagues for a five-month extension of the Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation Act of 2002 (TEUC) which the President signed into law that day. The extension of TEUC provides extra weeks of federally funded unemployment benefits to unemployed workers throughout the country who have exhausted all regular unemployment benefits available to them. New TEUC claims will be accepted from eligible unemployed workers through the last week of May 2003. Unfortunately, those workers who have already exhausted all TEUC benefits will not be eligible for additional benefits.

If you have questions about eligibility, please contact the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development at (615) 741-6642 in Nashville or by the web at http://www.state.tn.us/labor-wfd/news/extbenefit03.pdf. As this country faces difficult economic times and the threat of war with Iraq, our unemployed workers deserve to have some additional security as they search for a new job.