The Peru Gazette

WASHINGTON – Yesterday, Congressman Bill Owens voted in favor of H.R. 5618, the Restoration of Emergency Unemployment Compensation Act. The emergency legislation, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday by a vote of 270-153, would extend unemployment insurance to an estimated 143,000 New Yorkers that are scheduled to lose their benefits by Saturday, July 3. The legislation now goes to the Senate for consideration.

“These benefits are critical to hard-working Upstate New York families as the unemployed in our community continue to search for work during the worst economic climate our nation has seen since the Great Depression,” Owens said. “This legislation is urgently needed after weeks of partisan politics have stood in the way of middle-class families who have lost their jobs because of the recession.  Upstate New Yorkers are concerned with spending time with their families and putting food on the table, not who scores the most political points in Washington, and I urge for the bill’s swift passage in the Senate.”

H.R. 5618 would extend the Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) and Extended Benefits programs through November 30, 2010. This would retroactively restore benefits to people who may have started losing their benefits as early as the end of May.  The current lapse in extended benefits is unprecedented.  Since 1959, the government has never allowed extended unemployment benefits to expire when the national unemployment rate is still above 7.2 percent.  The current rate stands at 9.7 percent.

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