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(Washington, D.C.) Fourth District Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.) Wednesday
voted to extend federal unemployment benefits to millions of workers across
the country, including roughly 128,203 in Arkansas.
The amendment, offered by Rep. George Miller of California, passed in
the House by a vote of 227-179.
“This extension of unemployment benefits the House passed Wednesday
will provide much-needed relief to the 8.4 million Americans who are unemployed,
including over 128,000 Arkansans,” said Ross. “When those who are unemployed
are looking for work, at the very least they deserve to have the peace
of mind of knowing that their own health and the health of their family
is taken care of. I am proud that my colleagues and I succeeded in passing
this extension.”
The bill is on its way to the U.S. Senate. Before the extension
of benefits takes effect, the Senate must pass the bill and the President
must sign the legislation into law.
The need to extend unemployment benefits is great. The federal
unemployment program expired at the end of the year, denying assistance
to approximately 80,000-90,000 people nationwide each week since December
21 and leaving those out of work who ran out of state unemployment benefits
over the holidays without any federal help.
An estimated 375,000 unemployed individuals exhausted their regular
unemployment benefits in January without qualifying for any further assistance
- and are receiving neither a paycheck or unemployment benefits.
Furthermore, based on the latest data, nearly two million unemployed workers
are expected to be in this situation during the first six months of 2004.
Long-term unemployment has tripled to the second highest level in almost
10 years and stands at 1.9 million. |
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