Peters Letter signed by Chairs of Congressional Black Caucus, Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, Congressional Progressive Caucus and New Democrat Coalition

Coalition of 70 Members of Congress Join Peters Against Republican Efforts to Slash Unemployment Benefits

Washington, D.C. - Fighting for unemployed Michiganders, today U.S. Rep. Gary Peters sent a letter to the leaders of the House, Senate and Chairs of the Payroll Tax Cut Conference Committee urging them to maintain current levels of federal unemployment benefits in their negotiations. If Congress does not address this issue by the end of February, long-term unemployment benefits for 4.5 million Americans that lost their jobs through no fault of their own will disappear by the end of June, 2012.

The Peters Letter earned broad support with 70 other members of Congress signing it. Amongst the signers of the Peters Letter are the Chairs of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the New Democrat Coalition.

“The broad support this letter received is evidence that the Democratic Caucus is united against Republican attempts to cut unemployment benefits,” said U.S. Rep. Gary Peters.  “These benefits are a lifeline for tens of thousands of unemployed workers in Michigan who are struggling to pay their bills and feed their families.  Not only do we have a moral obligation to extend these benefits, but economists like Mark Zandi have noted that failure to do so would be devastating to our economic recovery.  I'm honored to have the support of such a broad coalition of leaders like Chairman Emanuel Cleaver, Chairman Charles Gonzalez, Chairwoman Judy Chu, Chairman Raúl Grijalva, Chairman Keith Ellison, Chairman Joe Crowley and my good friend Congressman John Conyers.”

If House Republicans refuse to act by the end of February, 4.5 million unemployed Americans, including 86,400 unemployed Michiganders, will lose their unemployment benefits by the end of June, 2012. If the current Republican plan to cut federal unemployment insurance benefits by 40 weeks passes, approximately 3 million Americans will lose their UI benefits by the end of the year, including approximately 90,000 Michiganders.

Recent legislative action has not addressed the need to maintain current levels of federal unemployment benefits. If the same type of extension is passed that went through in December 2011, 30,000 Michiganders would no longer qualify for the last 20 weeks of their unemployment benefits as of next week, February 18, 2012.

You can view the signed copy of the Peters Letter by clicking here.

Below is the text of the Peters Letter:

Dear House and Senate Leaders and Payroll Tax Cut Conference Committee Chairs,

While our economy is showing signs of recovery with the addition of 243,000 jobs in January 2012 and the reduction of the unemployment rate to 8.3%, over 12 million Americans remain unemployed.  The long-term unemployment rate – the share of unemployed workers who have been unemployed for 27 weeks or longer – has been over 40% throughout the entirety of 2010 and 2011.  This is an unprecedented level of long-term unemployment; the previous peak, in June 1983, was just 26%.

Unemployment benefits are a proven lifeline to families that they rely on to help pay for necessities such as rent, groceries, and utilities.  Expansions to the unemployment insurance program enacted in the Recovery Act and subsequent legislation in 2009 and 2010 kept over 3 million Americans out of poverty in 2010, including over 900,000 children.

As the Conference Committee on H.R. 3630 negotiates legislation extending the payroll tax cut, we urge you to include language that will maintain current levels of federal unemployment benefits for American workers.  The need to preserve federal unemployment benefits is amplified by unprecedented cuts to both the amount and duration of unemployment benefits made by a number of states.

We also have serious concerns about proposals that divert unemployment funds from direct recipients or that subject recipients to drug testing and education requirements which create barriers for our nation’s unemployed.  We encourage conferees to ensure that states use their unemployment funds, as they have historically done, to compensate recipients and not for any other purpose, and reject efforts to create new barriers for eligible individuals seeking unemployment benefits.

Additionally, even with a “clean” extension of current federal programs, many states will soon lose access to the Extended Benefits (EB) program, which provides up to 20 weeks of the current maximum 73 weeks of federal unemployment benefits.  Eligibility for EB is determined by the unemployment rate in a state compared to the rate in the same state three years prior.  Unfortunately, due to the unprecedentedly prolonged high rates of unemployment, many states will lose access to EB despite historically high levels of joblessness and need for unemployment benefits.  There are a number of ways to remedy this problem: the three year “look back” provision can be extended to four years, the “look back” can be temporarily suspended, or the current Emergency Unemployment Compensation program can be expanded to address the reduction in EB.

While there are a number of legislative solutions, the fact remains that reducing federal unemployment benefits would plunge hundreds of thousands of Americans into poverty and jeopardize our nation’s economic recovery.  Congress has never allowed a temporary, emergency unemployment benefits program such as EB expire when the unemployment rate was higher than 7.2%.  With 5 million American workers relying on these benefits to make ends meet as our nation’s economic recovery takes hold, now is not the time to roll back this critical lifeline.  We urge you to come together and put forward a conference report that will ensure that current levels of unemployment benefits remain available to American workers when they need it most.

                                                          
Sincerely,

U.S. Rep. Gary Peters
Member of Congress

Co-Signed by U.S. Representatives: Baca, Bass (CA), Bishop (NY), Bonamici, Brady (PA), Carson, Christensen, Chu, Clarke (MI), Clarke (NY), Clay, Cleaver, Cohen, Connelly, Conyers, Crowley, Cummings, Davis (IL), Davis (CA), Dingell, Ellison, Engel,  Farr, Filner, Fudge, Gonzalez, Grijalva, Hahn, Hastings, Heinrich, Hinchey, Hinojosa, Honda, Jackson, Jr., Johnson (GA), Kaptur, Keating, Kildee, Kucinich, Lee (CA), Lofgren, Luján, Maloney, McCarthy, McCollum, McGovern, Michaud, George Miller, Moore (WI), Nadler, Norton, Olver, Payne, Pierluisi, Pingree, Reyes, Richardson, Roybal-Allard, Rush, Linda Sánchez, Loretta Sanchez, Schrader, David Scott, Serrano, Stark, Sutton, Towns, Watt, Wilson (FL), Woolsey

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