U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez is urging U.S. House members to take up a measure reauthorizing federal jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed.
In a bi-partisan vote Monday, the U.S. Senate voted to extend emergency unemployment compensation for five months to those who have exhausted their state job-less benefits, but still haven’t found work. Whether or not the Republican-controlled U.S. House takes up the measure remains to be seen. The federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation program expired Dec. 28 leaving many unemployed in a tough financial bind.
Since then, the loss of benefits has impacted more than 111,000 Floridians and more than 2.2 million people nationwide. “One person whose a cancer survivor told me that fighting cancer was far easier than fighting long-term unemployment,” said Perez. “Another person told me last week, ‘I got no quit in me.’ And they’re not quitting on us and we’re not going to quit on them and that’s why we’re fighting so hard in the Obama administration to make sure that the house takes this bill up immediately.”
Sec. Perez said extending federal long-term unemployment benefits shouldn’t be a partisan issue. “Congress has never failed to act to extend benefits when you had long-term unemployment as high as it is as of December of last year,” said Sec. Perez. “It is literally unprecedented for Congress to fail to act. This was when we’ve had divided government before. They’ve acted with Republican presidents and Democratic presidents.”
Job seekers in Florida have faced a particularly difficult time getting benefits since the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity’s roll-out of a new faulty online system for applying for state benefits last October. Problems with the website have been improving in recent months. But last year the U.S. Labor Department found that changes to the state’s jobless benefit application process under Governor Rick Scott’s Administration have resulted in major civil rights violations.
