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800,000 lose jobless benefits
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Almost 800,000 jobless workers lost their unemployment benefits Saturday because the U.S. House of Representatives recessed in November without extending them. The emergency program extended state-funded benefits by 13 weeks in most states and by 26 weeks in three states with the highest unemployment levels -- Oregon, Washington, and Alaska -- and was scheduled to end December 28 no matter how many weeks of paychecks an unemployed worker had received. Those who lost their benefits Saturday "join another million jobless workers who have already exhausted all of their unemployment benefits," according to the AFL-CIO's Web site. "In addition, some 95,000 jobless workers will run out of state unemployment benefits each week and be left without jobs or temporary federal unemployment assistance," the Web site said, quoting a nonpartisan research center. AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney called the cut-off of the benefits extension "an economic catastrophe." "The Republican leadership in the House of Representatives and President Bush should feel ashamed," Sweeney said. Bush: Extension first order of businessBush has called on the next Congress "to make the extension of unemployment benefits a first order of business" when the new Congress convenes in January. "No final bill was sent to me extending unemployment benefits for about 750,000 Americans whose benefits will expire on December 28," Bush said in his weekly radio address last week. " ... They need our assistance in these difficult times, and we cannot let them down."
Bush said those cut off on December 28 should have their benefits extended retroactively to that date. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-New York, blamed the Republican-controlled House of Representatives for the delay. "We passed a bipartisan bill in the Senate," she said in the Democrats' weekly radio address. " ... But the House Republican leadership refused to pass this bill. They ran out the clock, and went home for the holidays, without even allowing a simple vote." Clinton said she was pleased with Bush's announced support for an extension, but added that she wished "he could have made that statement several weeks earlier, in time for the holidays."
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The Republican leadership in the House of Representatives and President Bush should feel ashamed.
