Dianne Feinstein: “as I stated on the floor earlier this week, I support a 13 week extension of unemployment Insurance. I do so as an issue…”

“as I stated on the floor earlier this week, I support a 13 week extension of unemployment Insurance. I do so as an issue of basic fairness to help and protect those who have been hurt by the economic downturn. Unemployed workers need assistance now. There are people in my State of California, and indeed across the country, who need an extension not because they have not been looking for a job, but because the downturn in the economy has made jobs difficult to keep, and even more difficult to find. As I stated earlier this week, there are over a million people unemployed in California, and since September 11, unemployment benefits have run out for 190,000 Californians. Because an average of 40 percent of Californians who go on unemployment exhaust their regular unemployment benefits, over 360,000 people in California alone could be helped by receiving this 13-week extension. These are the people who would be immediately helped by an extension of unemployment benefits. Throughout the United States, workers are running out of unemployment benefits while competing for less and less open jobs.”