![\"wyden-merkley\"](\"http:\/\/s217.photobucket.com\/albums\/cc83\/TomCat1948or2\/Blog%202010\/J-M\/OregonSenatorsJoininCalltoExtendUnemploy_1B3A\/wydenmerkley.jpg\" "\\"wyden-merkley\\"")
<\/a> With unemployment still hovering in <\/span>double digits<\/span><\/a> and no real relief in sight, a group of 30 Senate Democrats today is urging party leaders to extend emergency unemployment benefits through the end of 2010 \u2014 10 months longer than current law dictates.<\/span><\/p>\nIn a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), the lawmakers argue that shorter extensions might be cheaper, but they leave state budgeters in a state of constant uncertainty.<\/p>\n
Short term extensions, while still helpful to families, only add strain to state agencies that must constantly re-tool their computer systems, and at the same time, continue to assist the millions still searching for work. As our economy continues on a path to recovery, we need a robust extension of safety net programs that have provided a lifeline to families since the recession began<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Signing the letter were Democratic Sens. Tom Harkin (Iowa), Bob Casey (Pa.), Jack Reed (R.I.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Chris Dodd (Conn.), Jay Rockefeller (W.Va.), Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Al Franken (Minn.), Carl Levin (Mich.), Frank Lautenberg (N.J.), Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), Inserted from <Washington Independent<\/a>><\/p>\n This will probably receive broad support on final vote, because the GOP will be afraid not to pass it in an election year, as mush as they hate assisting those that their policies have devastated. However, it will be educational to watch Repuglicans fight tooth and nail to hold this up in order to consume as much floor time as possible and thus prevent Democrats from spending that time on America\u2019s other needs.<\/p>\n I feel proud that my Senators are part of this worthwhile effort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Until the jobs deficit, engendered by this GOP recession, is corrected, we need to help unemployed workers. With unemployment still hovering in double digits and no real relief in sight, a group of 30 Senate Democrats today is urging party leaders to extend emergency unemployment benefits through the end of 2010 \u2014 10 months longer […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Roland Burris (Ill.), Arlen Specter (Pa.), John Kerry (Mass.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Ron Wyden (Ore.)<\/strong>, Edward Kaufman (Del.), Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), Barbara Boxer (Calif.), Patrick Leahy (Vt.), Robert Menendez (N.J.), Herb Kohl (Wis.), Tom Udall (N.M.), Ben Cardin (Md.), Robert Byrd (W.Va.), Daniel Akaka (Hawaii), Jeff Merkley (Ore.)<\/strong>, Barbara Mikulski (Md.), Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) and Michael Bennet (Colo.), as well as Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.)… [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n