Unemployment Insurance Extension in US – Update

Barring an unexpected change of direction from the Republican leadership, the House of Representatives on Friday evening will go into recess yet again without taking action on extending emergency unemployment compensation benefits for millions of the long-term jobless. 

It’s not the first time the House has left town without delivering financial help for the more than 3 million Americans who have exhausted their state-level benefits. But this exodus has a special significance. The extension approved by a bipartisan majority in the Senate – but never voted on in the House – authorized benefits only through May 31.

The Senate bill, which passed two months ago, renewed a federal extension of state-level unemployment benefits through the EUC program for five months, retroactive to when Congress allowed the previous extension to expire at the end of December. The Senate bill will still be available for a House vote when members return on June 9, after a week’s time off – but it appears, for all practical purposes, to be dead. The chances of a purely retroactive extension of benefits passing the House at this point are extremely slim.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at GOP ‘Runs Out the Clock’ on Unemployment Insurance | The Fiscal Times.

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