Over 3.4 million long-term unemployed individuals may have dim hope for another bout in the battle to extend unemployment benefits. Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Dean Heller (R-NV) have proposed the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2014. The plan would extend benefits for five months for those who currently qualify, but would not be retroactive for those who stopped receiving EUC or exhausted their state claims after December 28, 2013.
The proposal has some bi-partisan support, but still little hope of being passed. Republican Frank LoBiondo of New Jersey is in support of the bill, and stated in a press release, “I see no reason why a bipartisan solution cannot be found that provides a critical lifeline to those in need without adding to the deficit.” Some counties in his state of New Jersey have been battling unemployment rates in the double digits. Other co-sponsors include Dan Kilder, D-Mich., and Representative Chris Smith, a Republican. Missing from this list is Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois, who supported the previous bill but has not supported this one. Less support certainly does not bode well for the potential passage of the bill.
One glaring oversight which calls into question the future of this bill is the fact that House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) has flatly refused to accept any proposal lacking a plan for job creation, a plan the current bill lacks. Newly elected House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy is also not expected to present the issue for risk of dividing his caucus. Millions of people and their families share in Senator Jack Reed’s sentiment that hopefully“…the House Republican leadership will start paying attention to the American people and will finally allow an up-or-down vote on this bill.”
Congressman Dan Kilder (D-Mi.) introduced the bill Wednesday to the House of Representatives. It is expected to meet further disapproval in the House as it does not include unrelated legislation regarding the Keystone XL Pipeline nor the repealing of certain parts of Obamacare. The extension plan is projected to cost $10 billion to extend benefits for five months. It would be paid by using the previously suggested extension of user fees through 2024 and pension smoothing through 2021.
Pension smoothing is a process that allows employers to pay smaller amounts into employee’s retirement pension plans, basically the equivalent to smaller tax deductions. Eventually, they would be required to start paying more.
Despite the drop in filing of unemployment claims, which is at its lowest since May 2007, food stamps, or SNAP, recipients are at the highest they have ever been. The poverty rate has remained constant over the last two years, overwhelmingly among low-wage workers and children. Currently, over 15 % of the population is drawing SNAP benefits. Rising prices in gas, food, and the cost of living point to a looming inflation that may be agitated by Congress’s inability to act on behalf of the long-term unemployed. Each day more and more people will exhaust their state claims and find themselves and their families facing poverty.