Title: Strong Jobs Report Could Mean Bad News For Unemployment Benefits | HuffPost
Headings: Strong Jobs Report Could Mean Bad News For Unemployment Benefits
Strong Jobs Report Could Mean Bad News For Unemployment Benefits
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Content: Strong Jobs Report Could Mean Bad News For Unemployment Benefits | HuffPost
POLITICS
12/06/2013 09:38 am ET Updated Dec 06, 2017
Strong Jobs Report Could Mean Bad News For Unemployment Benefits
By Arthur Delaney
WASHINGTON — The good news that the U.S. unemployment rate fell to 7 percent in November could be bad news for more than a million of the long-term unemployed whose federal benefits are scheduled to expire at the end of the month. In recent years Democrats have insisted that Congress maintain a special safety net for the long-term jobless specifically because the national unemployment rate hadn’t fallen beneath an historical threshold. This particular talking point could now backfire. “Congress has never before allowed benefits to expire when unemployment was higher than 7.2 percent,” Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said in 2012. Download
“Since the unemployment insurance system was created, Congress has never cut back on federally funded extended benefits when unemployment was over 7.2 percent,” Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) said in 2011. “Since 1959, the government has never allowed these benefits to expire when the national unemployment rate is above 7.2 percent,” Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.) said in 2010. Indeed, Congress has provided extra weeks of federal unemployment compensation for people who use up the standard six months of state benefits in response to every recession for the past 50 years.