Rep urges extending benefits

WASHINGTON (AP) -- More than 57,000 Ohioans will lose their unemployment benefits by this summer if Congress doesn't extend a federal program, according to a report released Tuesday by Rep. Ted Strickland.
The estimate from the U.S. House Committee on Government Reform was intended to pressure the Republican-controlled Congress and the Bush administration to resurrect the emergency benefits in a program that expired in December.
The program began offering 13 weeks of aid in March 2002 to jobless workers who use up their state benefits -- usually 26 weeks. Congress extended it twice.
Democrats are pushing legislation in Congress this week that would extend the benefits by 26 weeks for all workers and three additional weeks in high-unemployment states. Strickland, a Democrat from Lisbon, is a co-sponsor of the bill.
The report obtained by The Associated Press said an average of 2,200 Ohio workers will lose unemployment benefits each week for the first six months of 2004. In total, about 57,191 unemployed Ohioans will have exhausted their benefits between Jan. 1 and June 31, the report said.
Nationwide, about 2 million workers will lose their unemployment benefits by July 1.
Republican leaders say the economy is improving and the national unemployment rate has fallen to 5.6 percent from a high of 6.3 percent last June.
In Ohio, the unemployment rate is 5.5 percent.