Norton Disgusted That Congress Went Home For Thanksgiving Leaving Thousands of D.C. Residents without Unemployment Benefits Extended

November 19, 2010

WASHINGTON, DC -- The House adjourned yesterday for Thanksgiving after defeating H.R. 6419, the Emergency Unemployment Continuation Compensation Act, co-sponsored by Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), which would have extended unemployment benefits through February 28, 2011.  "Only a Congress without any semblance of a conscience could have a happy Thanksgiving while unemployment benefits for millions of Americans expire during the Thanksgiving holiday on November 27," Norton said.  The legislation would have extended unemployment insurance benefits for 8,100 D.C. residents, reducing the misery of being without any funds over the holiday season.  The Congresswoman said that there is no disagreement among economists that unemployment insurance benefits are an immediate stimulus to the economy because they are spent immediately, injecting needed demand into the marketplace.  Even in mild economic downturns, Republicans and Democrats in Congress have passed extensions of unemployment insurance as emergency spending, but now Republicans are insisting that the extension be offset by reductions elsewhere.  However, if the government puts money into the economy to stimulate it, its simulative effect is reduced if money is immediately taken out of the economy with offsetting reductions in spending.  Norton said that she would co-sponsor another bill as soon as possible to continue pressure to extend unemployment benefits.