Cummings Votes To Help Unemployed Workers In Heavy Unemployment Areas

Cummings Votes To Help Unemployed Workers In Heavy Unemployment Areas
Legislation supports states most impacted by unemployment, extending benefits 13 extra weeks.

(Washington, DC) – Congressman Elijah E. Cummings voted yes today on the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2009 (H.R. 3548). The legislation will extend unemployment benefits by up to 13 weeks for over 300,000 jobless workers who reside in high unemployment states. These workers are projected to run out of unemployment compensation by October. The bill will also apply to over one million workers who will otherwise exhaust benefits before the end of the year.

These benefits will help workers who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own buy necessities for their families, as well as continue their mortgage payments. The unemployment funding will thus immediately move back into the stream of the economy.

“Our friends and families throughout the nation are still suffering from this economic downturn,” said Congressman Cummings. “Jobs tend to recover slower than the rest of the economy, but we know they will come back. We must avoid slowing that process even more, by keeping as many Americans as we can out of poverty and foreclosure. This legislation will do exactly that.”

Several indicators show the economy is improving, but there are still nearly six unemployed Americans for every available job and long-term unemployment is at an historically high level. Five million Americans have been without work for longer than six months.

This legislation is deficit-neutral. The cost of the bill is offset by two provisions. First, it extends for one year a federal unemployment tax that has been in place for over 30 years and which President Bush proposed extending in his last budget. The tax costs employers $14 per year, per employee. Second, it requires that current reporting on newly hired employees include the date work started to reduce unemployment insurance overpayments.

The high unemployment states qualifying for additional benefits are AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, ME, MI, MS, MO, NV, NJ, NC, NY, OH, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, TN, WA, WI, WV and the District of Columbia.

Unemployed workers outside of these high-unemployment States also may qualify for more weeks of benefits this year if their State is close to meeting certain triggers.

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