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Senate Passes Unemployment Benefits Extension Bill, House Republicans Continue to Stall

House Speaker John Boehner The U.S. Senate finally passed a bill that would extend long-term unemployment insurance benefits on Monday, but the House of Representatives continue to find fault in the measure and are less eager to do the same.
House Speaker John Boehner
House Speaker John Boehner

The U.S. Senate finally passed a bill that would extend long-term unemployment insurance benefits on Monday, but the House of Representatives continue to find fault in the measure and are less eager to do the same.

House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican from Ohio, is calling the bill "unworkable," because it fails to create jobs (although a jobs creation bill has very little to do with a decision on whether to extend insurance benefits).

Boehner also says the bill cannot work because individual state governments will have trouble finding the 2 million people who've missed out on the benefits since they lapsed in December.

The Congressional Budget Office has said repeatedly that emergency unemployment benefits boost jobs because claimants plow their benefits directly into necessities such as food and shelter.

Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, representing Central Brooklyn, is urging House Republicans to "do the right thing," and allow a vote on the legislation, as further delay will injure the ability of the economy to continue its recovery.

"The Senate has put partisan politics aside and courageously taken a substantial step forward on behalf of over two million long-term unemployed Americans," Jeffries said.

"Over 198,000 New Yorkers have been cut off from federal unemployment compensation benefits since December 2013.  It is time for House Republicans to act."




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