Womenstake

Senate Extends Jobless Benefits for the Year – But a Minority Blocks Targeted Job Creation

by Emily J. Martin, Vice President, 
and Joan Entmacher, Vice President for Family Economic Security,
National Women's Law Center

Yesterday, the Senate passed a bill that would give vital assistance, and a little peace of mind, to jobless workers and women who depend on Medicaid. The bill extends enhanced unemployment insurance benefits and COBRA assistance through the end of the year, and provides additional funding to states to protect Medicaid services. In addition to providing a necessary safety net, UI benefits are a very effective engine for stimulating the economy, so we hope Congress moves quickly to finalize the legislation.

Unfortunately, despite lawmakers’ repeated assertions that job creation is their top priority, a minority of Senators successfully blocked an amendment that would have funded well over half a million jobs for low-income parents and youth. Senator Judd Gregg objected that the provision wasn’t fully paid for—it was, but over ten years rather than over the five years required by Senate rules—which meant that 60 votes were necessary to add the provision to the Senate’s tax extenders and jobs bill. Only 55 Senators voted to create 500,000 summer jobs for low-income youth and to extend the TANF emergency fund for six months. 

Tell Congress to Pass a Real Jobs Bill

by Joan Entmacher, Vice President for Family Economic Security,
National Women's Law Center

Things are already bad for struggling families in this country. Let’s not let them get worse.

Last week, because of a single Senator’s objection, the extended unemployment insurance program expired. And 200,000 people were immediately put at risk of losing benefits.

We aren’t out of the woods yet. Tell the Senate to act now.

Congress temporarily remedied last week’s catastrophe, extending benefits for another 30 days. But it’s time for Congress to stop playing games and start looking for real solutions for the unemployed.

Tell your Senators enough is enough. It’s time to pass a long-term, comprehensive jobs agenda.

To provide real help to struggling Americans, Congress needs to extend unemployment insurance and COBRA health benefits until the end of the year. It also needs to give states the assistance they need to protect Medicaid and other vital services, prevent layoffs, and create jobs. As part of this effort, Congress has to extend the TANF Emergency Fund, which states across the country are using to create jobs for low-income parents. To deal with this jobs crisis, our families and communities need a comprehensive jobs bill.

And we all need to stand up for our neighbors, friends and family who are struggling in this economy.

Thank you for all you do for women and their families.

Jobless Benefits About to Expire

by Joan Entmacher, Vice President for Family Economic Security,
National Women's Law Center

What would you do if you couldn’t find work — and your unemployment insurance benefits were about to run out in less than a week?

If the Senate doesn’t act now to extend unemployment insurance benefits, nearly 1.2 million jobless Americans will be denied benefits next month. By June, that number will rise to 5 million. In addition, unemployed workers are about to lose COBRA subsidies that help them continue health insurance coverage.

Take Action: Tell your Senators to get serious and protect struggling families — NOW.

This isn’t just a crisis for jobless workers and their families. When families lose the benefits that enable them to purchase the goods and services they need, the jobs of workers who provide those goods and services are also at risk. 

On top of that, additional federal aid to states to protect Medicaid, education, and other vital services is about to expire — and states could cut these services more deeply.

But — although unemployment is expected to stay above 9% for the rest of the year — the Senate is only considering a 30-day extension of unemployment insurance benefits. And funding to protect Medicaid and other services isn’t yet on its agenda.

Urge your Senators to extend unemployment and COBRA benefits through the end of the year to give families the help they need and the peace of mind they deserve. And urge them to extend Medicaid assistance to states to prevent states from cutting women off the Medicaid program or reducing benefits. 

Your Senators need to hear from you. Please take action today!

Save the Cliffhangers for 'Lost' – and Give Struggling Families Help They Can Count On

by Joan Entmacher, Vice President for Family Economic Security,
National Women's Law Center

Right before the holidays, Congress and President Obama averted a looming disaster by approving a two-month extension of unemployment insurance and COBRA health insurance programs. Without this extension, the New Year would have meant a loss of benefits for 1 million workers in January alone. 
But the holiday reprieve for jobless workers and their families was only temporary. These extended benefits will run out at the end of February, unless Congress takes action again.

The latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics confirm that while the pace of job loss has slowed dramatically since early 2009, the unemployment crisis continues. Overall unemployment remained at 10 percent in December. Unemployment among women rose slightly between November and December, from 8.0 to 8.2 percent, while unemployment among men declined slightly, from 10.4 to 10.2 percent. 

Unemployment Rises, Especially Among Single Moms, but Some Help Is on the Way

by Joan Entmacher, Vice President for Family Economic Security,
and Valerie Norton, Public Policy Fellow,
National Women's Law Center

Unemployment rose to 10.2 percent in October, reaching a 26-year high, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While the unemployment rate among men is higher than among women, 10.7 percent compared to 8.1 percent, both rates rose last month and are at their highest levels in decades.

Especially worrisome is the unemployment rate for women who head families. At 12.9 percent, it’s higher than the rate for men or women -- and it jumped by 11 percent in one month to reach its highest level in 26 years. Even before the sharp rise in unemployment this year, more than one in three (37.2 percent) female-headed families with children were poor in 2008. Women of color also continue to experience high rates of unemployment: 12.4 percent for Black women and 10.4 percent for Hispanic women.

In the face of these statistics, we’re relieved that a bill extending unemployment insurance benefits made it through Congress and was signed by President Obama today after being stalled for weeks in the Senate . The measure provides additional weeks of assistance to those who have exhausted their unemployment insurance benefits: up to 14 weeks in every state, and up to six more weeks in states with unemployment above 8.5 percent.

The extended benefits are particularly important because, according to the National Employment Law Project, more than 600,000 out-of-work people have exhausted their benefits in the past two months. Moreover, long term unemployment (six months or more) is at its highest level since records have been kept, and over one-third of jobless women (37.6%) and men (38.3%) have been unemployed for 27 weeks or more.

To be eligible for extended benefits, a jobless worker first must qualify for unemployment insurance. Many women and low-wage workers face barriers to unemployment insurance coverage – but fortunately, some of these barriers are coming down, as about half the states have taken advantage of incentives in the Recovery Act to modernize their unemployment insurance systems. States have until August 2011 to enact the reforms that will qualify them for federal funds, but the sooner they act, the sooner workers will get the unemployment insurance benefits they need and deserve.

High unemployment – especially long-term unemployment – has lasting consequences for women and their families. The additional unemployment insurance benefits approved today will provide indispensable assistance, and the Recovery Act is helping to preserve and create jobs and deliver help to struggling families and communities. But in the face of this unemployment crisis and predictions that unemployment and poverty will remain high for many months, more is needed to create jobs and promote a shared recovery.

Unemployment Insurance Extended

by Joan Entmacher, Vice President for Family Economic Security,
National Women's Law Center

We have great news! This week, the Senate voted 98-0 in support of helping struggling families by passing a desperately needed extension of unemployment benefits. Yesterday, the bill passed the House 403-12 — and President Obama is expected to sign the bill today.

The bill provides a 14-week extension of unemployment insurance benefits in all states, and an additional 6 weeks of benefits in states with over 8.5 percent unemployment. It also provides incentives to states to allow victims of sexual assault, as well as victims of domestic violence, to qualify for unemployment benefits if they have to leave a job. Other provisions were added to the bill, including an extension and expansion of the tax credit for home buyers and business tax credits.

With long-term unemployment at record levels, these extended benefits are essential to help families keep a roof over their heads and put food on the table. Over 1.3 million workers whose benefits would otherwise run out by the end of the year will benefit from this extension. More needs to be done to help jobless workers, but this bill is a step in the right direction.

Anti-Tax, Anti-Government Referenda Go Down to Defeat

by Joan Entmacher, Vice President for Family Economic Security,
National Women's Law Center

Times are tough –- and paying taxes is never very popular. So it’s particularly notable that the two referenda sponsored by anti-tax activists to limit state and local taxes and spending were soundly defeated in Maine and Washington State. Local business leaders joined advocates in educating voters about the impact the referenda would have on the education, health care, transportation, public safety, and other services their state and local tax dollars support –- and large majorities voted to protect those services.

Tea baggers may make noise and headlines. But the results in Maine and Washington -- and in the 20 other states that have rejected similar spending limits since 2004, tell a different story about what the public really values. We hope the media will start paying attention.

How to Make Social Security Even Better

by Joan Entmacher, Vice President for Family Economic Security, 
National Women's Law Center 

Are you among the nine out of ten Americans who agree that “Social Security benefits are more important than ever to ensure that retirees have a dependable income when they retire,” as a poll released this summer found? Are you frustrated (as I am) by the continuing efforts to portray Social Security as a budget problem that needs to be solved, rather than the foundation of retirement security for most Americans that should be strengthened? If so, you’ll appreciate a new report released today by the National Academy of Social Insurance. The report lays out a set of options for making Social Security more adequate and solvent for the next 75 years.

The adequacy of Social Security benefits is a crucial issue –- especially for women, who are more reliant than men on income from Social Security and are more likely to be poor. The report outlines several approaches, with cost estimates, for improving benefits for vulnerable beneficiaries:

• Increasing benefits for the oldest old (over 85)
• Increasing benefits for widowed spouses of low-earning couples (get for more information about this proposal) 
• Credit for caregiving
• Improved minimum benefits for long-service, low-paid workers
• Restoring benefits for students up to age 22

And, because average benefits are modest (the average retired-worker benefit in January 2009 was $13,680 per year), and the financial crisis has exposed and heightened the risks that older Americans face to their retirement security, the report also looks at options for improving benefits across the board.

The report also outlines options, with cost estimates, for closing the long-term shortfall in Social Security and financing benefit improvements.

I hope the report will help spark a new kind of debate about the future of Social Security.  But I wish they’d come up with a different title for the report. It’s called, “Fixing Social Security:  Adequate Benefits, Adequate Financing.” Social Security is about the only part of our retirement system that isn’t broken; defined benefit pensions are disappearing, and many of those that remain are weak; retirement savings are vulnerable to the risks of the market and our system of tax incentives gives the most help to those who need it least. So, by all means, let’s talk about improving, strengthening – but not fixing, please.

87 -13, Senate Votes to Consider Unemployment Insurance Extension

by Joan Entmacher, Vice President for Family Economic Security, 
National Women's Law Center 

It’s not over yet -– tonight’s Senate victory was on a procedural vote. But the overwhelming 87-13 vote to break a filibuster and allow the Senate to consider the unemployment insurance extension bill we described earlier is very encouraging.  

Objections by a couple of Senators delayed the unemployment insurance extension bill for weeks. But tonight, all Senators had to stand up and be counted on whether they would continue to block consideration of a bill that would provide help to jobless workers whose unemployment insurance benefits are running out. In the end, only 13 Senators voted to block consideration of this crucial measure.  

The Senate still has to vote on the final bill, so unemployed workers will have to wait a little longer. But, tonight, it looks like help will be on the way.

Take Action: Stand Up for Struggling Families

by Joan Entmacher, Vice President for Family Economic Security, 
National Women's Law Center 

Imagine...

First you lose your job. Then you find out you're about to lose the one lifeline that's keeping your family afloat — your unemployment insurance.

Sadly, that's the reality for hundreds of thousands of American families. Every day that Congress fails to extend unemployment insurance benefits, benefits run out for thousands of workers. This month alone, 200,000 jobless workers will exhaust their unemployment benefits; by the end of December, the number is expected to reach 1.3 million.   

That's why we need your help.

Support the extension of unemployment benefits by contacting your Senators today!

The Senate is considering a bill that would provide 14 weeks of extended benefits in every state, and an additional 6 weeks of benefits in states with high rates of unemployment above 8.5 percent. The bill also would encourage states to let victims of sexual assault, as well as victims of domestic violence, qualify for unemployment benefits if they had to leave a job. But some Senators have stalled action on the bill for weeks.

Please urge your Senators to support an immediate extension of unemployment benefits.