(WASHINGTON) – Last week, Western New York Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (New York-28th District) voted to extend unemployment insurance benefits to millions of out-of-work Americans and the families they support, saying: “Many hard-working Western New Yorkers, who through no fault of their own are out of a job, need this assistance to help pay bills, put food on the table and provide for their families. I refuse to tell my constituents who are struggling that we don’t care what happens to them.”
The Unemployment Compensation Extension Act passed the House by vote of 272-152 after being ushered to the floor through Slaughter’s Rules Committee. In June, the Department of Labor reported that the unemployment rate for May in Rochester was 7.3% and 7.6% in Buffalo and Niagara Falls. Passage of the bill will give much needed benefits to 190,000 New Yorkers, more than 12,000 of which are in Western New York.
“At a time when millions of families across the country are struggling to make ends meet, we must lend a hand. Many hard-working Western New Yorkers, who through no fault of their own are out of a job, need this assistance to help pay bills, put food on the table and provide for their families. I refuse to tell my constituents who are struggling that we don’t care what happens to them,” Congresswoman Slaughter said.
The bill follows weeks of obstruction by Republicans involving important measures that would have promoted job creation here in the U.S., but extended critical unemployment insurance benefits to help Americans support their families as they look for their next job opportunity.
Approximately 2.5 million unemployed workers Nationwide have lost their unemployment insurance benefits. H.R. 4213 will extend the Emergency Unemployment Compensation and Extended Benefits programs through November 30th, 2010. In addition, the legislation will retroactively restore benefits to recipients who may have started losing their benefits as early as the end of May.
