Long-Term Jobless Benefits Expire Saturday
BURLINGTON, Vt., – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said today that Congress must restore unemployment benefits that expire Saturday for 1.3 million Americans, including some 600 Vermonters, who have been out of work for longer than 26 weeks.
Unless Congress acts, jobless benefits will lapse during the first half of 2014 for an additional 1.9 million people, including another 2,300 Vermonters.
“It is not only immoral to cut off help for workers struggling to find jobs, it is also bad economics,” Sanders said. “At a time when long-term unemployment is near a record level, cutting benefits will hurt the rest of the economy and cause even more jobs to disappear.”