On the recordJuly 20, 2010
I rise today to thank my colleagues for voting to extend the emergency unemployment compensation program through November 30, 2010. This vote is long overdue. While we have been debating the issue, families across the country dealing with long-term unemployment have been suffering. While we have been arguing about this extension, they have been struggling to survive. I am pleased that this body has finally taken action to ease the burden they face. Extension of the emergency unemployment compensation program provides additional weeks of unemployment benefits to out-of-work Americans once regular State unemployment benefits have been exhausted. The number of weeks of benefit is determined by a State's unemployment rate. The legislation also extends full Federal funding of the extended benefits program. This program provides 13 to 20 weeks of benefits to unemployed workers who have exhausted regular and emergency unemployment compensation benefits in States with threshold unemployment rates. Thanks in part to some of the actions of this Congress, including the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, we are beginning to see some upturn in what is considered the most severe economic recession this Nation has experienced since the Great Depression. The recovery, though, is not a quick and easy process. Even though job loss has slowed, unemployment remains high at 9.5 percent. This translates into 14.6 million unemployed Americans.
