Unemployment extension Nov 2010 - voted down but tax cuts for rich a priority!

Roz Zurko

Hartford Pop Culture Examiner

• November 23rd, 2010 4:31 pm ET

The unemployment extension 2010 was voted down in Congress last week, just in time for the House to leave on their Thanksgiving vacation for this week.

If this bill does not pass the House and then the Senate by Novemeber 30th, then many long term unemployed will start to lose their benefits. The number of long term unemployed who will be without benefits will grow to 2 million by the end of next month.

This will most likely only be a lapse, but for how long is anyone's guess. They will most likely pass the unemployment extension eventually. This summer's lapse caused home forclosures, utilities shut off and cars repossessed for the long term unemployed.

The House may try to jump start this vote when they return from Thanksgiving vacation for another vote.

Representative Alan Grayson from Florida says “he is appalled that the tax cuts for the rich bill is being pitched over and over again, when the unemployment extension is something they won’t join in on passing.”

Once the bill passes the House, the Senate is still three votes short on passing the unemployment extension bill.

Rep George Miller from California said that the Senate is trying to figure out what vehicle they can add the unemployment extension bill to.”

This says it all. Cut the tax bills of the rich, as they live in luxury, but when it comes to the regular hard working Americans that cannot find a job through no fault of their own, the bill is voted down.

Rep George Miller, Chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, told the Huffington Post, “I don’t think we should be going home over the holidays when people are losing their unemployment benefits, especially when the struggle is how you can give more money to the rich.”

These two Representatives have basically explained the situation clearly. The government is more invested in cutting the taxes for people who are rich, so they have more money, than they are in helping the people who do not know where their next meal will come from without the unemployment benefits. Why are the unemployed of this country a forgotten group?

Maybe forgotten is not a strong enough word, it sounds like they are being deliberately ignored or they just don’t care what happens to the average American who is counting on this funding.

Connecticut has fared a bit better than some of the states that have reached double digits in their unemployment rates. The Nutmeg State has stayed within the national average for their rate of unemployed. It is not good, but it could be worse, like Nevada with 14.2 percent unemployed, according to the NCSL.

WHAT DOES THE BILL REALLY SAY?

Unemployment 
Compensation Extension Act of 2010 - House Version

Summaries

Congressional Research Service Summary

The following summary was written by the Congressional Research Service, a well-respected nonpartisan arm of the Library of Congress. GovTrack did not write and has no control over these summaries.

7/22/2010--Public Law. Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2010 -

Section 2 -

Amends the Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2008 with respect to the state-established individual emergency unemployment compensation account (EUCA). Extends the final date for entering a federal-state agreement under the Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) program through November 30, 2010. Postpones the termination of the program until April 30, 2011. Amends the Assistance for Unemployed Workers and Struggling Families Act to extend until December 1, 2010, requirements that federal payments to states cover 100% of EUC. Amends the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2008 to exempt weeks of unemployment between enactment of this Act and April 30, 2011, from the prohibition in the Federal-State Extended Unemployment Compensation Act of 1970 against federal matching payments to a state for the first week in an individual's eligibility period for which extended compensation or sharable regular compensation is paid if the state law provides for payment of regular compensation to an individual for his or her first week of otherwise compensable unemployment. (Thus allows temporary federal matching for the first week of extended benefits for states with no waiting period.) Amends the Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2008 to apply to claims for EUC payments the terms and conditions of state unemployment compensation law relating to availability of work, active search for work, and refusal to accept work.

Section 3 -

Requires a state to determine whether an individual is to be paid EUC or regular compensation for a week of unemployment by using one of four specified methods if: (1) an individual has been determined to be entitled to EUC for a benefit year; (2) that benefit year has expired; and (3) such individual has remaining entitlement to EUC for that benefit year, and would qualify for a new benefit year in which the weekly benefit amount of regular compensation is at least either $100 or 25% less than the individual's weekly benefit amount in such benefit year.

Section 4 -

Declares that federal-state agreements under which the state agency makes EUC payments to certain individuals shall not apply (or shall cease to apply) with respect to a state whose method for computing regular compensation under such state's law has been modified in a manner that reduces the average weekly benefit amount of regular compensation payable on or after June 2, 2010, to less than the average weekly benefit amount of regular compensation otherwise payable under the state law as in effect on such date. (Thus prohibits states from reducing regular compensation in order to be eligible for federal funds under the EUC program.)

Section 5 -

Designates Sec. 2 and Sec. 3 as an emergency in the House of Representatives pursuant to the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010 and in the Senate as an emergency requirement.