May 7th Action Alert

Updated May 9, 2008

ALERT- Call Your Congressperson Today to Vote for Extended Benefits!

Good Friends –

Many of you have been patiently e-mailing asking when Congress will finally take action to extend jobless benefits. Well, next week (as soon as Wednesday, May 14th), it’s likely that the House of Representatives will vote. So, now is the time to call your Congressperson and spread the word to your family and friends to do the same.

As we reported earlier on www.UnemployedWorkers.org, a bill called the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Act (H.R. 5749) passed the key committee in the House of Representatives with strong support from both Democrats and Republicans.  It would provide 13 weeks of federal extended benefits to workers in all states and another 13 weeks (or 26 weeks total) to workers in those states that have an unemployment rate above 6 percent. 

In the past couple weeks, several leading newspapers, including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and others have issued editorials strongly supporting the measure.  In addition, leading Republicans, including Governor Schwarzenegger in California, have recently called on Congress to extend benefits, as has the National Governors Association.

Like many bills that become law, the bill to extend jobless benefits will be part of a larger package of measures that have to move out of the Congress and go the President.  So, this week the leadership of the House of Representatives decided to include the extension of jobless benefits as part of the bill to approve spending for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.  It's important to emphasize that the funding is there in the federal unemployment insurance trust funds (over $38 billion) to pay for the modest $12.7 billion extension program.

The President is still on record opposing the extension of jobless benefits despite the continued loss of jobs reported last month by the Department of Labor.  For the President to understand the importance of the bill, it is critically necessary that the extension of jobless benefits continues to build strong bi-partisan support.   The more Republican support for the bill, the more likely it will pass Congress and get signed into law by the President. 

So, please act now to get calls into your Congressperson (and from your family, friends and co-workers as well!) expressing this simple message:  “Congressman [insert name], I  urge you to vote for the extension of jobless benefits when it comes up for a vote on Thursday as part of the war spending bill. Thank you.”

To find out who your Congressperson is and how to reach him or her in Washington, D.C., just click on the following link:
http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml.

Your continued support is critical to making an extension of jobless benefits a reality!  Thank you.

Best wishes,

National Employment Law Project