Congressman Rick Larsen's Online Office

Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Representative Rick Larsen (WA-02) voted to extend unemployment insurance benefits to millions of jobless Americans. The Unemployment Compensation Extension Act (H.R. 4213) will extend the Emergency Unemployment Compensation and Extended Benefits program through November 30, 2010. It will also retroactively restore benefits to people who started losing benefits as early as the end of May. This bill will now go to the President’s desk to be signed into law.

“There are over 30,000 mothers and fathers, sons and daughters in Northwest Washington who lost their job through no fault of their own and are using unemployment insurance to make ends meet,” said Rep. Larsen. “Today I voted to extend unemployment benefits that will help these folks pay their bills as they continue to look for work. Restoring their benefits will also put dollars right back into our local economy as they use the money to buy food and fill their cars with gas.”

Extending unemployment benefits is not only good for the unemployed; it is also one of the best and fastest ways to stimulate the economy, according to analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Unemployment benefits were responsible for creating more than 1 million jobs since the recession started, and adding almost 2 percent to the gross domestic product according to the Economic Policy Institute.  Every dollar in unemployment benefits creates $1.61 in economic activity, according to Economist and former John McCain advisor, Mark Zandi.

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