Senate to Vote on Unemployment Insurance Extension TODAY!

The Senate will vote tonight (Monday) on final passage of the bill to restore unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless - finally! 

Please don't leave anything to chance:  tell your Senators to vote yes. And tell the House to take a vote.

Click here to send emails to your Senators and Representative.

As of April 5th, more than 2 million unemployed workers have lost jobless benefits because Congress hasn’t acted.
The Senate seems ready to help - you can make sure they do.
But House Speaker John Boehner is using every excuse he can think of to prevent UI from coming up for a vote.

Where things stand:
The Senate has taken all the procedural votes.  Now the vote on final passage in the Senate is scheduled for Monday, April 7, at about 5:30 p.m.  
But Speaker Boehner and his leadership team are preventing UI from being voted on in the House.  First they said it needed to be paid for.  It is paid for in the Senate bill.  Then they said the expiration has gone on for so long, it would be too hard to provide retroactive benefits.  But Jeff Frischmann, head of Nevada state unemployment insurance operations, says "We would stand ready and do it...We'll get through it, just like we have in thepast."

What to do:  click here to send emails to your Senators and Representative.
TODAY - Monday, April 7:  Contact your Senators and tell them to vote to restore Emergency Unemployment Compensation.
Contact your Rep. and tell him/her to urge Speaker John Boehner to bring up the Senate bill to restore Unemployment Compensation for a House vote ASAP. 

Background:
 The Senate has gotten through all the procedural votes; now comes the vote on final passage, which only requires a simple majority.  The Senate bill to restore Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) is a bipartisan agreement on a 5-month restoration of long-term unemployment benefits (the last resort after all other federal and state support has been exhausted). Those who were denied assistance after the program expired on December 28th will get retroactive help.  The bill is an important step forward, made possible because you and many thousands of constituents held their Senators accountable.  But it still needs the final vote.  So please send this email to your senators so they know you’re still paying attention, because jobless workers desperately need this help.

Your representative needs a different message.  Speaker Boehner has refused so far to bring a bill to the floor to restore unemployment insurance.  So every House member must be urged to tell the Speaker to bring the Senate bill to the floor and to vote for its passage.    

Each week since EUC was allowed to expire, another 72,000 workers and their families have been cut off.  As of April 5th, more than 2.3 million people have been denied assistance.  More than $5 billion in benefits have been lost to families and communities.  There are still not enough jobs and too many out of work for more than six months. 

Unemployed Workers Need Your Help

The Senate is expected to vote today on a bill to extend Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits to the long-term unemployed.  They need 60 votes!

Write to your Members of Congress today.  Now is not the time to leave unemployed workers without help.

What is UI?

Unemployment insurance is a federal-state program that provides a financial safety net to those who have lost their jobs. Unemployment insurance is the first economic line of defense against the reality of unemployment and is intended to keep people clothed, fed, and housed while they seek new employment. 

The Issue:

On January 1, 2014, the special extension of UI for the long-term unemployed expired. This left more than 1.6 million unemployed workers and their families without benefits.  The long-term unemployed are people who have been without a job for more than six months.  They qualified for their state programs, exhausted those benefits, and now the federal extension is all they have left.

Though the unemployment rate is coming down, the measures of long-term unemployment are not improving: [i]

·      38% of the unemployed are long-term unemployed

·      the average duration of unemployment for all unemployed workers is 37.1 weeks, over 11 weeks longer than the maximum state benefit

·      3.9 million workers are long-term unemployed

The unfortunate truth is that the job market is not improving much. Most of the gains in the employment rate over the last year are due to discouraged workers leaving the work force (no longer looking for a job, and therefore, no longer counted as unemployed). People giving up on ever finding a job is NOT the way we want to see the unemployment rate come down.  We should be making sure that those who want to work are able to find good jobs that allow them to support themselves and their families.

Write to your Senators and Representative now!

What does the Church say about work and unemployment?

In 2012, the 220^th General Assembly spoke on the fundamental nature of our economic system and the way it reflects our values.  The Assembly wrote:

“We reject, as incompatible with Christian vocation, any economic system that tolerates the marginalization or exploitation of any of its members through unemployment and underemployment, insufficient wages, or extreme inequality in access to social goods.” 

The statement goes on to urge several policy proposals that would address the wide and varied root causes of economic injustice in the U.S.  On the subject of the safety net, it called for

“a stronger social safety net for poor and low-income families, through measures such as adjustment of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and related income support programs to extend time limits or reactivate expired eligibility in times of high unemployment, and protection of Food Stamps, WIC, SSI, Medicaid, and other programs for the most vulnerable, from across-the-board budget cuts.”[ii]

 

As Reformed Christians, we believe in the value and dignity of work.  We believe God calls us into vocation, which is a “lifelong response to God in all aspects of one’s life.  Work, paid and unpaid, is an integral part of the believer’s response to God’s call.”[iii] But when God’s children have no opportunity to work we have an even greater responsibility to one another. 

Write to your Members of Congress today.  Tell them to support the extension of Unemployment Insurance for the long-term unemployed.

As the Assembly wrote in 1995, “All conditions of paid employment, including compensation and working conditions, should sustain and nurture the dignity of individuals, the well-being of households and families, the social cohesiveness of communities, and the integrity of the global environment.”

Learn more about Unemployment Insurance from the United States Department of Labor. 

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[i] Tackling the Long-term Unemployment Crisis: What the President, Congress, and Business Leaders Should Do; National Unemployment Law Project (NELP); January 2014. http://www.nelp.org/page/-/UI/2014/Issue-Brief-Tackling-Long-Term-Unemployment-Crisis.pdf

[ii] World of Hurt, Word of Life: Renewing God’s Commuion in the Work of Economic Reconstruction; 220^th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 2012, http://www.pcusa.org/resource/world-hurt-word-life-renewing-gods-communion-work/

[iii] Principles of Vocation and Work; Minutes, 207^th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 1995, pp.426-427.

Home Care Workers should have Wage Protection too

Tell Your Senator: Don't Prevent Home Health Workers from Earning Minimum Wage

In December of 2011, the Obama administration announced that it was proposing updates to regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act that would ensure minimum wage and overtime protections to in-home care workers. More information about the proposed changes is available from the Department of Labor. Office of Public Witness Director, Rev. J. Herbert Nelson, submitted comments to the Department of Labor in support of this proposed regulation:

In light of our theological understanding of vocation and stewardship, and of the inherent value of work, we believe that all persons deserve the opportunity and have a responsibility to productive work at a fair wage.  This proposed rule will serve the common good by making working and living situations that much better for a segment of the population.  As our neighbors rise, so do we all.  Emphasizing the common good has clear implications for improving the economic security of older adults and for the workers who care for them.  We strongly support this proposed policy, which will improve the quality of care for people living with age-related and other disabilities, and the quality of the jobs of those who provide that care.

While this proposed change was intended to respond to the changing nature of the growing in-home care industry, some in Congress are working to prevent home health workers from accessing basic minimum wage and overtime protections. Tell your Senator today that home health workers deserve a living wage.

With respect to home care workers, in 2001, the Presbyterian General Assembly, "encourage[d] the church to be diligent in its covenant responsibility to its older members and their caregivers, advocating for living wages for all in this important industry." And in 2006, the General Assembly approved Economic Security for Older Adults, in which it advocated a system that "provide[s] workers in the formal, long-term care system decent wages, benefits, and working conditions." Home care workers provide skilled care for their patients and clients. They are much more than sitters and companions. Take action today to ensure that they get the wages they deserve.

This graphic outlines some statistics about home health care workers in this county. The facts are clear: home health workers deserve a living wage. Don't let Congress prevent them from earning one.