May 15 , 2008

House Votes to Extend Jobless Benefits

Today, the House of Representatives voted in favor of extending jobless
benefits by a margin of 256 to 166, sending a strong message to the
President that it's time reconsider his opposition to the measure.

The extension of jobless benefits was voted on together with a proposal
to provide new education benefits for war veterans as an amendment to a
much larger spending bill that Congress has to send to the President to
fund the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The vote on the extension of
unemployment insurance and the new veterans benefits generated
significant bi-partisan support, including 32 Republicans who voted for
the measure.

House Votes:
http://www.unemployedworkers.org/docUploads/HouseVote%2DUI%2Epdf

Now the war spending bill and the amendment to extend jobless benefits
go to the Senate for a vote, which could happen before the Memorial Day
break or sometime soon thereafter. The challenge will be to ensure that
there's strong bi-partisan support in the Senate as well so the
President does not follow through on his promise (repeated today) to
veto the bill. So, please be sure to contact your Senators to express
your support of the extension of jobless benefits as part of the war
spending bill.

To help with your outreach to press and allies, here's a link to our
latest state estimates of the number of workers exhausting their
unemployment benefits.
View State Estimates

Thanks everyone for all your help generating support for the House
extension. Now it's on to the Senate!

Best,
Maurice Emsellem
National Employment Law Project
405 14th Street, Suite 1400
Oakland, CA 94612