Extending Assistance for Unemployed Americans
House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) discussed extending unemployment benefits and the payroll tax holiday, as well as GOP efforts to suppress voting rights, on The Bill Press Show today.
According to NBC’s First Read, Speaker Boehner ducked on the issue of extending unemployment benefits before they expire at his weekly press conference this afternoon:
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Thursday morning that Congress in the next few weeks needs to focus on extending unemployment benefits that expire at the end of the year.
House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said that while the agenda is full for the home stretch into 2012, "there's no more important piece of legislation" than extending benefits.
“There is no more important piece of legislation that we need to pass than the extension of unemployment insurance benefits,” the Maryland Democrat said today. “Over the next 21 days we’re going to test whether the Congress has a heart and a soul.”
Before we adjourn for the year, there are a number of important items we must address. The most pressing is the expiration of unemployment benefits at the end of December. Should Congress fail to act, millions of Americans who rely on emergency unemployment compensation will begin to see their payments disappear in starting in January. 2.1 million will have lost their benefits by the middle of February and over 6 million by the end of 2012.
With millions of Americans struggling to find work, Democrats are urging House Republicans to work with us on an extension of emergency unemployment benefits before they expire at the end of this year. With 6.5 million fewer jobs in the economy today than when the recession began and over four people seeking employment for every open position available, it’s clear our economy and millions of unemployed Americans are depending on an extension of these benefits.