Last Friday, the House of Representatives finally held a vote on HR 4213…

the bill that at one point, contained an extension of the filing deadline for federal UI programs (Emergency Unemployment Compensation, Federal Additional Compensation, and the full federal funding of Extended Benefits) through the end of the year, and an extension of the COBRA subsidy also through the end of the year. Unfortunately, over the course of the last two weeks, however, that bill was stripped down on many occasions, taking out and paring down programs left and right in order to satisfy the ever-growing concerns over the budget deficit.
What’s most disturbing is that comments from a number of members of Congress made it clear that too many in Washington are wavering in their commitment to helping families survive this terrible job market. So more than just this extension is at stake – it’s the very commitment of our nation to helping the unemployed.

As a result, by the time the bill hit the House floor for a vote, the extension of the UI programs only ran though the end of November, and the COBRA subsidy was dropped altogether. And the Senate recessed on Thursday night, so they were not around to pass this bill later on Friday or over the weekend, so yet again, we are facing at least a temporary lapse of the federal UI programs and COBRA subsidy.

All of us at NELP are devastated by the recent turn of events, in particular, the growing belief that Congress can EITHER work on job creation and supporting the unemployed OR reducing the deficit. We do not believe this is an either/or choice and NELP is going to be working very hard with our allied organizations and all of you to re-shape the dialogue and help convince Members of Congress that focusing on the jobs part of the economic recovery is the BEST way to deal with our deficit problems.

Before telling you about what comes next, we want to provide a bit of information to answer questions many of you must be asking:

· If you are ALREADY receiving the COBRA subsidy, you will be able to keep receiving it, at least through the end of this year.

· If you are in the middle of a tier of EUC, you will be able to finish that tier. However, you will not be able to move on to your next available tier of EUC unless Congress extends the filing deadline again.

· If your state permanently participates in the EB program, and you are currently receiving EBs, you will also continue to receive those. The states with a permanent EB trigger are: AK, CT, KS, MN, NH, NJ, NM, NC, OR, RI, VT and WA.

· Finally, if you are in a state that permanently participates in the EB program and your EUC tier ends before Congress reauthorizes the programs, you will then start receiving EBs.

So, what’s next? Well, Congress is on recess this week, so there will be no official activity on the bill this week. But this is good – it gives all of us time to start fighting to improve the bill in the Senate. NELP will be leading the charge to get the COBRA subsidy put back into the bill before the Senate votes on it, so that those who are newly unemployed in this still-terrible job market can have a better chance of being able to maintain their personal health insurance for themselves and their families. And we know there are going to be problems with a number of Senators who are uncertain about their support for the bill for a variety of reasons (for example, some think it’s still too expensive, others are upset about things that were cut, and still others don’t like some of the tax provisions that are in unrelated parts of the bill).

So this week, it’s very important that all of you contact your own Senators with a consistent message: abandoning the unemployed will NOT help cure the deficit problems, it will only enhance those problems. The job market is still in really bad shape and they CANNOT abandon the unemployed when unemployment remains close to 10% and job creation is not yet consistent or robust You can use this link . . . . to make your voices heard.

We will likely be asking you to take action on a number of occasions over the next few weeks, and we will send you updates as frequently as we have new information to share.

Members of unemployedworkers.org are THE most motivated and responsive group of people out there – each time we send you requests to take action, over 50% of you do so, a return rate that is practically unheard of by other groups engaging in on-line advocacy. Your voices are being heard and can effect policy in ways no one else can do, so please stay motivated and please take action whenever you can.

If you have additional questions please visit our Ask the Expert Page where you can find answers to commonly asked UI questions, you may send us your questions directly using our benefit question contact form.

As always, thanks for everything that you do.

Your friends at unemployedworkers.org