Letter to House and Senate Leadership - Unemployment
Letter
Dear House and Senate Leaders,
While our economy is showing signs of recovery with the addition of 171,000 jobs in October 2012 and the unemployment under 8%, over 12 million Americans remain unemployed. The long-term unemployment rate -- the share of unemployed workers who have been unemployed for 27 weeks or longer -- was over 40% throughout the entirety of 2010 and 2011, and persists at a rate of 40.6% in October 2012. This is an unprecedented level of long-term unemployment; the previous peak, in June 1983, was just 26%.
Unemployment benefits are a proven lifeline to families that they rely on to help pay for necessities such as rent, groceries, and utilities. Expansions to the unemployment insurance program enacted in the Recovery Act and subsequent legislation in 2009 and 2010 lifted over 3.2 million Americans out of poverty in 2010, and 2.3 million in 2011 including over 600,000 children.
As House and Senate leadership negotiate legislation addressing expiring tax provisions, cuts mandated by sequestration, and the Medicare sustainable growth rate, we urge you to include a robust extension of federal unemployment benefits for American workers. Given the unprecedented levels of long-term unemployment our nation currently faces, a full extension of unemployment benefits through 2013 should represent the minimum acceptable extension in any year-end compromise legislation. Should Congress fail to act by the last week of December, over two million workers will immediately lose their federal unemployment benefits
Disconcertingly, federal unemployment benefits were already reduced earlier this year; the total cap on combined state and federal unemployment benefits was cut from 99 weeks at the beginning of 2012 to 73 weeks currently. Additionally, the need to extend federal unemployment benefits is amplified by unprecedented cuts to both the amount and duration of unemployment benefits made by a number of states.
We also have serious concerns about proposals that divert unemployment funds from direct recipients or that subject recipients to new drug testing and education requirements which create barriers for our nation's unemployed. We encourage House and Senate leadership to ensure that states use their unemployment funds, as they have historically done, to compensate recipients and not for any other purpose, and reject efforts to create new barriers for eligible individuals seeking unemployment benefits.
Reducing federal unemployment benefits would plunge hundreds of thousands of Americans into poverty and jeopardize our nation's economic recovery. With millions of American workers relying on these benefits to make ends meet as our nation's economic recovery continues to take hold, now is not the time to roll back this critical lifeline. We urge you to come together and ensure that unemployment benefits remain available to American workers when they need it most.
Sincerely,
Barbara Lee
Member of Congress
Sander Levin
Member of Congress
John Conyers
Member of Congress
Eleanor Holmes Norton
Member of Congress
Laura Richardson
Member of Congress
Hank Johnson
Member of Congress
Gary Peters
Member of Congress
Pete Stark
Member of Congress
Lucille Roybal-Allard
Member of Congress
Barney Frank
Member of Congress
Donna M. Christensen
Member of Congress
Gwen Moore
Member of Congress
Sam Farr
Member of Congress
Lynn Woolsey
Member of Congress
Mike Honda
Member of Congress
Eddie Bernice Johnson
Member of Congress
Marcia Fudge
Member of Congress
Janice Schakowsky
Member of Congress
Joe Baca
Member of Congress
Keith Ellison
Member of Congress
Melvin L. Watt
Member of Congress
Earl Blumenauer
Member of Congress
Raúl Grijalva
Member of Congress
Bennie G. Thompson
Member of Congress
Al Green
Member of Congress
Henry Waxman
Member of Congress
Bob Filner
Member of Congress
Peter DeFazio
Member of Congress
Sheila Jackson Lee
Member of Congress
Danny K. Davis
Member of Congress
Yvette Clarke
Member of Congress
Charles Rangel
Member of Congress
Judy Chu
Member of Congress
Robert A. Brady
Member of Congress
James P. McGovern
Member of Congress
Albio Sires
Member of Congress
Suzanne Bonamici
Member of Congress
Dennis Kucinich
Member of Congress
Chellie Pingree
Member of Congress
Steve Cohen
Member of Congress
Dale Kildee
Member of Congress
Ben Ray Lujan
Member of Congress
Rosa L. DeLauro
Member of Congress
David Cicilline
Member of Congress
Hansen Clarke
Member of Congress
George Miller
Member of Congress
Joseph Crowley
Member of Congress
Maxine Waters
Member of Congress
Corrine Brown
Member of Congress
Sanford Bishop
Member of Congress
John Lewis
Member of Congress
James R. Langevin
Member of Congress
Elijah E. Cummings
Member of Congress
John F. Tierney
Member of Congress
Carolyn Maloney
Member of Congress
David Loebsack
Member of Congress
Karen Bass
Member of Congress
Anna Eshoo
Member of Congress
G. K. Butterfield
Member of Congress
Edolphus Towns
Member of Congress
Michael Doyle
Member of Congress
John Dingell
Member of Congress
Terri Sewell
Member of Congress
Betty McCollum
Member of Congress
Bobby Rush
Member of Congress
Janice Hahn
Member of Congress
David Curson
Member of Congress
Lois Capps
Member of Congress
Gene Green
Member of Congress
Jerry McNerney
Member of Congress
Peter Welch
Member of Congress
Michael Michaud
Member of Congress
Ed Markey
Member of Congress
Jerrold Nadler
Member of Congress
Pedro Pierluisi
Member of Congress
William R. Keating
Member of Congress
Robert C. "Bobby" Scott
Member of Congress
José E. Serrano
Member of Congress
Rubén Hinojosa
Member of Congress
Doris O. Matsui
Member of Congress
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