Letter to the Honorable Harry Reid, Majority Leader of the US Senate, the Honorable John Boehner, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, the Honorable Mitch McConnell, Minority Leader of the US Senate, and the Honorable Nancy Pelosi Minority Leader, US House of Representatives - Urging Extension of Unemployment Compensation

Letter

Dear Senator Reid, Senator McConnell, Speaker Boehner, and Representative Pelosi,

We write to urge you to swiftly pass a one-year extension of the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Program ("EUC") and 100% federal funding of the Extended Benefits ("EB") Program before they expire on December 31.

We are extremely concerned about the potential impact of the expiration of these programs on families and our economic recovery as a whole. Unless Congress extends these programs before adjourning for the holidays, nearly 2 million unemployed workers will lose this critical support in January 2012 alone. Now is not the time to turn our backs on hard-working Americans. Individuals who are laid off through no fault of their own rely on these funds to support their families.

Extending unemployment insurance is a critical part of our ability to speed up the economic recovery process. Unemployment insurance benefits are immediately injected back into the economy. According to the Congressional Budget Office, federally extended unemployment insurance benefits provide one of the best bangs for the buck in terms of stimulating economic growth.

Congress has never failed to act on extending federal unemployment insurance benefits when the unemployment rate has exceeded 7.2%, and we must not fail our citizens now.

We urge immediate action to extend Emergency Unemployment Compensation and 100% federal funds for the Extended Benefits program through the end of 2012.

Sincerely,

Governor Pat Quinn
Illinois

Governor John Hickenloopor
Colorado

Governor Edmund Gerald Brown
California

Governor Jack Markell
Delaware

Governor Steven Beshear
Kentucky

Governor Deval Patrick
Massachusetts

Governor Dannel P. Malloy
Connecticut

Governor Neil Abercrombie
Hawaii

Govemor Martin O'Malley
Maryland

Govemor Mark Dayton
Minnesota

Governor Andrew Cuomo
New York

Governor Bev Perdue
North Carolina

Governor John A. Kitzhaber, M.D.
Oregon

Governor John deJongh,Jr.
Virgin Islands

Governor Peter Shumlin
Vermont

Governor Chris Gregoire
Washington

Cc: Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus
Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp
House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin

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