Washington, D.C. — U.S. Representative Bob Etheridge (D-Lillington), the only North Carolina member of the House Ways and Means Committee, voted last night to extend unemployment benefits for more than one million of the nation’s workers.
“North Carolina’s workers have been hit hard in this economic downturn,” said Etheridge. “Extending benefits for folks who are having trouble finding a job is the right thing to do for families and our recovering economy. Working families need this temporary support to get back on their feet.”
The U.S. House approved H.R. 3548, “the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2009”, on Tuesday evening by a 331-to-83 vote.
Without this legislation Americans who have yet to find employment would have exhausted their jobless benefits. The legislation would keep payments going to the 27 states hardest hit by unemployment, by providing up to 13 weeks of additional unemployment benefits.
More than 15,000 workers in North Carolina will exhaust their benefits by the end of September. Another 32,000 North Carolinians would run out of benefits by the end of this year. Although North Carolina experienced the largest over-the-month increase in employment in the country last month, gaining approximately 7,000 jobs, North Carolina’s
unemployment rate of 10.8 percent is still one of the 10 highest rates in the nation. Any recovery we see is likely to be fragile and need strengthening.
The United States experienced a near economic collapse at the height of the recession earlier this year, and working families are still in need. The benefits in H.R. 3548 would provide immediate assistance to jobless workers residing in high unemployment states like North Carolina, helping them buy necessities for their families and continue their mortgage payments.
The 27 high unemployment states eligible for extended benefits under H.R. 3548 are AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, ME, MI, MS, MO, NV, NJ, NC, NY, OH, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, TN, WA, WI, WV, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.