Hopefully Orrin Hatch is reading the local, Capitol Hill news. Last week, he became one of the growing numbers of congresspeople who showed his vast ignorance on the topic of unemployment insurance.
WASHINGTON -- Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch said this week that extended unemployment insurance "is well over 100 weeks now," making him the latest millionaire member of Congress to publicly demonstrate that he does not understand the unemployment legislation he obstructs....
Hatch joins Sen.John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who in the past few weeks made the same mistake. HuffPost first reported that members of Congress don't understand unemployment benefits back in November. Most of them don't understand what it's like to struggle to find work, either.
Hatch is perhaps the worse Senator in the world when it comes to unemployment insurance. You might remember, is the guy who thinks people receiving unemployment insurance should be drug tested. But you'd think he'd at least bother to get his facts right on the program. There's a very good primer from The Hill today that he needs to read.
While bipartisan tax legislation signed by President Obama on Friday reinstates unemployment benefits for about 1 million it doesn't provide any additional help for those who have exhausted all 99 weeks....
That could leave a growing number of so-called 99ers -- about 10 percent of the unemployed -- without benefits soon, especially those laid off during the height of unemployment claims that hit in early 2009....
When benefits expired Nov. 30, about 1 million people scattered across all 50 states stopped receiving unemployment checks, which provide an additional 34 and up to 53 weeks of benefits based on the state's unemployment levels under the Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC), which was enacted in 2008.
After state and EUC benefits are used up, unemployed workers can receive benefits through the permanent federal-state Extended Benefits (EB) program, between 13 to 20 weeks, if their state’s unemployment insurance laws call for it, according to the National Employment Law Project (NELP)....
Overall, half of all states qualify for the 99 weeks, because the unemployment rate is at least 8.5 percent with some of the highest unemployment in California, Georgia and Rhode Island, according to Labor Department statistics. Of those 25 states, 12 have jobless rates at least as high as the 9.8 percent national level, while nine are mired in double-digit unemployment.
Since the tax cut deal did not create what's known as a new tier of benefits, which would allow for benefits beyond the 99 week maximum now authorized, no one in any state will be receiving benefits once the 99 weeks has been exhausted. Period. Meaning there's very little hope for those 99ers, or all the people who will be joining them over the next 13 months as they reach the end of their benefits.