[PAA-Discuss] Sign to Help the Unemployed!

[Juli3 at aol.com]

Our friends at the  National Employment Law Project are calling on 
national, state, and local  organizations to sign this letter urging Congress to 
extend unemployment  benefits as an urgent first order of business when they 
return from a  week-long recess.   
Deadline:  Tuesday,  February 16 COB 
To sign, please email Judy Conti at _jconti at nelp.org_ 
(mailto:jconti at nelp.org?subject=My%20org.%20will%20sign%20UI%20letter&body=Thanks.%20%20I%20am%20a
uthorized%20to%20sign%20my%20organization's%20name%20to%20the%20letter%20sup
porting%20quick%20action%20by%20Congress%20to%20extend%20unemployment%20bene
fits.

My%20name:
Organization:
City:
State:) 

Congress  left for its Presidents' Day recess without renewing extended 
Unemployment  Insurance.  This means states are legally obliged to start  
notifying the jobless that their unemployment benefits will end; the extra  
months of federal benefits will expire on February 28.  The Coalition on  Human 
Needs believes it is shameful for Congress to have failed to act - the  
letter text below explains why.  We urge all organizations to sign this  letter 
to Congress. 
Dear  [insert]: 
We are writing to urge the  Senate and the House of Representation to act 
immediately to continue the  Recovery Act's aid to the jobless as a 
stand-alone measure through the end of  2010.
Congress and President  Obama took bold action one year ago to enact major 
benefits for today's  jobless families, including the extension of jobless 
benefits and subsidized  COBRA coverage.  Subsequent expansions of the 
program, including the  14-20 week expansion of Emergency Unemployment 
Compensation (EUC), have also  gone a long way to respond to the severity of the crisis 
of long-term  unemployment that has now gripped the nation, with more than 
40% of all  unemployed workers still struggling to find work after six 
months and more  than six unemployed workers looking for every available  job. 
While the jobless aid  provided by the Recovery Act has been significant, 
the decision of Congress to  adopt limited extensions of the program have 
caused severe hardship, both for  unemployed workers and the state systems that 
are struggling with severely  outdated equipment and insufficient staff and 
resources to process over 10  million unemployment checks each week.   
Indeed, as result of the  limited two-month extension that expires February 28th 
starting in the week of  February 15th, the states will be forced to spend 
time and resources they can  ill-afford to waste notifying workers that the 
extended UI programs are  shutting down.  They will also need to start 
reprogramming their  computers to implement the required shut-down by February 
29th.   
If Congress does not take  final action by February 22nd, the states will 
no longer be in a position to  reverse the process and there will be mass 
confusion among desperate workers  whose only means to pay their groceries and 
housing is their limited  unemployment benefits.  Moreover, the delay will 
wreck havoc on the state  agencies as a result of the extra work required to 
shut down the programs and  the immediate need to respond to the flood of 
phone calls that will start  coming in from panicked workers.   
By every economic  indicator, the extension of jobless aid provided by the 
Recovery Act should  continue through the end of year. As recently 
documented by the Congressional  Budget Office, the extension of jobless aid also 
provides the most significant  boost to the economy and job growth of any 
policy option being debated by  Congress.  It provides $1.90 in stimulus for 
every dollar spent, and will  be responsible for creating 800,000 jobs this year 
alone.  In spite of  the importance of this program, the House of 
Representatives passed a jobs  bill in December that includes an extension of jobless 
aid only through June  and the recent draft of the Senate jobs bill only 
continues the program  through May. 
Given the severity of the  crisis and latest evidence of the problems 
associated with a short-term  continuation of the program, these limited 
extensions of jobless aid can no  longer be sustained.  These short-term extensions 
simply do not measure  up to the realities facing unemployed workers in 
today's economy or to the  serious challenges facing the state agencies that 
process the  benefits.    
Accordingly, we call on  Congress to enact a stand-alone continuation of 
the jobless aid provisions of  the Recovery Act as its first measure of 
business when it returns from recess,  and to continue the program through the end 
of the year. 
Sincerely,  
****************  
To sign, please email Judy Conti at _jconti at nelp.org_ 
(mailto:jconti at nelp.org?subject=My%20org.%20will%20sign%20UI%20letter&body=Thanks.%20%20I%20am%20a
uthorized%20to%20sign%20my%20organization's%20name%20to%20the%20letter%20sup
porting%20quick%20action%20by%20Congress%20to%20extend%20unemployment%20bene
fits.

My%20name:
Organization:
City:
State:) 
Thanks! 
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