Well, not quite.

Because the bill was held up for so long in the Senate, an end-of-the-year filing deadline will prevent anyone from accessing the final six weeks of benefits, according to state officials and sources on Capitol Hill. On Friday, President Obama signed into law legislation extending jobless benefits by 14 weeks nationwide, with an additional six weeks for those states where unemployment rates top 8.5 percent. Those benefits kicked in on Sunday. But there’s a glitch. The new law treats the 20-week extension as two separate extensions of 14 weeks and six weeks, with participants required to exhaust the first 14 weeks before applying for the next six. However, the current law keeps a Dec. 31 application deadline, roughly seven weeks from now, making collecting the full 20 weeks impossible.

Image by: Matt Mahurin

Image by: Matt Mahurin

That’s not all. The emergency unemployment benefits provided beginning in 2008 are also tiered. The filing deadline applies to all tiers. That is, the new extension would effectively grandfather the unemployed into the tier where they sit at the end of December, preventing them from jumping into the next, even if they were eligible.

As a result, some members of Congress are already eying another sweeping unemployment extension, which would both address the deadline glitch and provide additional help — well beyond the six weeks in question — to those unable to find work next year, when jobless rates are expected to hover near double digits.

The Orange County Register first reported on the deadline glitch last week.

In a state like California, where unemployment currently stands above 12 percent, that technicality would prove significant. Loree Levy, spokesperson for California’s Employment Development Department, said Monday that an estimated 92,000 residents had exhausted all of their available unemployment by the end of October, and roughly 285,000 will be eligible for the newly enacted benefits by the end of the year. Whether they can get 20 weeks or only 14, though, depends on whether Congress extends the filing deadline.

Some in Congress are well aware of the problem. The office of Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) said Monday that he’ll be pushing a proposal to provide as much as an additional year’s worth of jobless benefits. The proposal will be wrapped into a package to include other provisions designed to ease Main Street’s pain amid the downturn, including money to subsidize COBRA health benefits, as well as a provision to extend the full federal funding of a traditionally state-federal unemployment insurance program called FedEd, which got full federal funding under the stimulus bill. Without congressional action, states would again have to pick up part of the FedEd tab at the end of 2009.

McDermott doesn’t have an easy task. The pricetag for extending just the unemployment benefits for one year is roughly $80 billion, the McDermott aide said. With deficit spending having topped $1 trillion in the last fiscal year — and with an enormous health reform proposal in the works — the congressional appetite for expensive new proposals is hardly ravenous. Still, with national unemployment at 10.2 percent — and no wave of new jobs on the horizon — even the most ardent small-government conservatives would have a tough time voting against additional relief.

Chairman McDermott Again Passes Unemployment Insurance Benefits Extension President Will Sign Legislation Soon

November 5, 2009

Americans who already have or soon will exhaust their unemployment insurance benefits will quickly realize the benefit of legislation, H.R. 3548, Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) passed by an overwhelmingly margin (403-12) in the House today to extend unemployment insurance benefits in all 50 states by 14 weeks and an additional 6 weeks in states where the unemployment rate is 8.5% or higher. McDermott is the chairman of the House Ways and Means Income Security and Family Support Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over the nation’s unemployment insurance program.

“Despite positive signs we are seeing in the economy, it will take time to restore the jobs lost during the recession and this bill provides an economic lifeline for over one million Americans whose benefits have already run out or would have in coming weeks,” Rep. McDermott said. “These are benefits the American people deserve and have earned in the workforce.”

McDermott originally passed an UI extender bill in late September; the Senate added additional states and other provisions. With today’s vote, the bill will be immediately sent to the White House and the President’s is expected to sign the bill into law in the next couple of days.

While the legislation provides immediate help, McDermott said that Congress will need to act again before the end of the year to allow the extended UI benefits to continue into 2010. McDermott said, “We cannot forget that we’re not yet out of the woods; 6 people are competing for every available job and economists continue to project rising unemployment numbers and we cannot let people down just as they are beginning to get back on their feet.”

The legislation passed in the House today also included a program to benefit small business and it extended and expanded the Homebuyer Tax Credit Program. The provision was added by the Senate, but weeks ago, the Seattle Democrat threw his support behind the Homebuyer Tax Credit Program.

“The Homebuyer Tax Credit Program clearly has helped to stabilize America’s critical housing market and is nurturing a fragile comeback,” Rep. McDermott said. “Continuing and expanding the program for a few additional months reaffirms our commitment to the economic security of the American people.”

http://www.house.gov/mcdermott/pr091105.shtml
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h3548/show