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Ryan pushes jobless benefits as Senate advances bill
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Ryan
Youngstown
U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Howland, D-17th, continued to pressure Congress to pass legislation that would provide temporary relief to thousands of unemployed Ohioans.
On a conference call with reporters, Ryan and Tim Burga, AFL-CIO president, said the extended jobless benefits were critical for struggling Ohio families and the health of the state’s overall economy, where the November unemployment rate registered at 7.4 percent, above the national average of 7 percent.
Since 2008, the federal government has provided unemployment insurance benefits for up to 37 weeks to workers who had exhausted their regular state benefits. But that relief expired Dec. 28 after Congress adjourned for the holidays without renewing the program.
With the federal benefits gone, Ohio workers receive no government compensation after they have exhausted their 26 weeks of state aid.
According to a December study by the Council of Economic Advisers and the Department of Labor, the end of the extended benefits would affect 128,000 unemployed Ohio workers by the end of the year, who would either have their federal benefits terminated or be unable to transition to the federal program.
In a report released last week, the independent research group Policy Matters Ohio found that, as of Dec. 28, only one in five jobless Ohioans was receiving jobless benefits, marking a 30-year low.
About 1,800 out-of-work Ohioans per week were filing for the extended benefits, according to the study.
“Those Ohioans will now go without benefits, as will the 36,000 who were filing claims for benefits each week before the program ended,” the study said.
Ryan said the failure of Congress to extend federal benefits in last month’s bipartisan budget deal was the equivalent of “turning our backs” on the unemployed.
“There’s no other way to say it,” Ryan said.
Ryan expressed little optimism the bill under consideration Tuesday would find adequate support in either the House or the Senate. Reports on Monday and Tuesday morning indicated the legislation lacked Republican support because it did not provide a way to finance the $6.4 billion extension.
The Senate, however, did vote to advance debate on the bill.
U.S. Sen. Rob Portman was one of six Republicans to join Democrats in voting to advance the bill.
“I voted to proceed with the debate over how to address unemployment insurance with the hope that during the debate the Senate will agree to pay for the extension and work to improve the unemployment insurance program so it works better to connect those unemployed with available jobs,” Portman said.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Avon, also applauded the Senate vote.
“The Senate came together on one of the coldest days of the year to take the first step toward ensuring that unemployed Americans aren’t left out in the cold,” Brown said in a statement. “We must continue to fight for those who are still struggling after the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.”
Even if the bill passes the Senate, Ryan said he was unsure if there were enough votes in the House or if leadership would even take it up. He said the sense of urgency that led Congress to renew extended benefits multiple times simply was not there on the Republican side.
“We have to create that sense of emergency,” Ryan added.
The average weekly jobless benefits check in Ohio was $318, and the maximum was $413, though the total varied depending on how many dependents an unemployed worker claimed.
Burga said that was money out of the local economy because those funds would have gone immediately toward buying necessities.
“They’re not putting it in the bank,” he said. “They’re spending it.”