11.14.02

Senate Passes Unemployment Benefits Extension

Bill protects unemployment benefits for 80,000 Washingtonians

WASHINGTON, DC - The U.S. Senate today passed a bipartisan extension of federal unemployment benefits through the end of March. The unemployment benefits, which were due to expire on December 28, will provide economic assistance approximately 80,000 Washingtonians.

The legislation was Senator Maria Cantwell's (D-WA) top priority for this lame duck session of Congress. It was co-authored by Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Peter Fitzgerald (R-IL), Cantwell, and Arlen Specter (R-PA).

"Washingtonians can sleep easier tonight knowing that we have taken a major step towards extending this important source of temporary economic assistance," Cantwell said. "While this helps families put food on the table and pay their bills, it is also injects cash into a troubled economy."

The Clinton-Fitzgerald-Cantwell-Specter legislation extends to March 31, 2003 the current expiration date of December 28, 2002.

Without the extension, approximately 50,000 unemployed workers in Washington state would lose their federal benefits at the end of December. Another 30,000 would exhaust state benefits in the first quarter of 2003 without having federal benefits to fall back on.

On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said that unemployment benefits provided a boost to the economy. "Unemployment insurance provided a timely boost to disposable income," Greenspan said.

A 1999 Department of Labor study showed that every $1 spent on unemployment insurance generated $2.15 in economic activity.

The emergency federal unemployment benefits extension has been Senator Cantwell's top priority for the lame duck session of the 107th Congress. Cantwell spoke on the floor and in Democratic party caucus, wrote an op-ed in the Seattle Times, personally lobbied her colleagues, and met with labor, economic, and business leaders from Washington state to build support for the extension.