May 14th, 2003
Chicago Tribune
By T. Shawn Taylor
The second extension
of federal unemployment insurance benefits is due to expire on May 31, cutting
off aid to an estimated 2.1 million out-of-work Americans who will exhaust
their state benefits over the next six months.
In Washington, talk of extending federal benefits a third time can only be
described as deja vu.
Opinion about whether another extension is even necessary is divided along
party lines, as it was last fall when Congress adjourned and allowed the first
extension passed in March 2002 to run out just days after Christmas. In
January, Congress passed a 13-week extension in a compromise package after
receiving last-minute backing from President Bush.
For the past few weeks, Democrats in both houses have been pushing companion
bills that would not only extend the current 13-week program, but would provide
an additional 26 weeks of benefits to those who exhaust their regular state
benefits through November, as well as to 1.1 million people whose federal
benefits ran out long ago.
In Illinois, where the unemployment rate is 6.6 percent, the Democrats' plan
would extend benefits to 102,100 jobless workers who exhaust state benefits and
to another 85,000 who have already exhausted their federal extension but remain
jobless.
But efforts to attach the plan to the Bush stimulus package failed and the
clock is ticking. Congress is set to adjourn May 23--a week before the
extension expires.
Jobless workers who begin collecting federal benefits before May 31 will still
be eligible to receive the full 13 weeks under the current program. But those
who run out of state benefits after May 31 are on their own.
That's a scary thought to Allan Ross, 62, a project manager who was laid off
from WorldCom in December.
"Even now, I have to take money out of my [retirement] savings. I can't go on
like this forever," said Ross, of Skokie.
Ross joined Illinois Democrats, including Sen. Dick Durbin and U.S. Reps. Jan
Schakowsky, Danny Davis and Rahm Emanuel, as well as other politicians and
labor leaders, at a news conference Monday to rally support for an extension.
It's going to be an uphill battle. Republicans have yet to offer a compromise
bill of any kind, and the White House has expressed no support for a third
extension.
Meanwhile, anger is building among supporters of an extension who plan to stage
a rally on Wednesday afternoon outside the Department of Labor in Washington.
"They're playing games," said Maurice Emsellem, public policy director of the
National Employment Law Project (NELP), which recently published a survey of
413 unemployed workers in which more than 80 percent expressed little
confidence that they can find work soon.
"There needs to be leadership from the White House to show support for an
extension," Emsellem said.
NELP has established a Web site with updates on the unemployment extension at
www.unemployedworkers.org.
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