Bill Text: MI SR0113 | 2013-2014 | 97th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: A resolution to memorialize the Congress of the United States to restore the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 10-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2014-03-26 - Discharge Committee Defeated [SR0113 Detail]
Download: Michigan-2013-SR0113-Introduced.html
Senators Hopgood, Young, Anderson, Bieda, Ananich, Warren, Whitmer, Gregory, Hood and Johnson offered the following resolution:
Senate Resolution No. 113.
A resolution to memorialize the Congress of the United States to restore the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program.
Whereas, The Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) program was a federal program providing additional unemployment benefits to individuals who had exhausted their regular benefits provided under the unemployment insurance system. The EUC program, enacted in 2008 as unemployment skyrocketed, provided at least 14 additional weeks of unemployment benefits in all states, but for states with a persistent high unemployment rate, like Michigan, the EUC program provided up to 47 additional weeks. However, a 2012 law amended this program, allowing it to expire in 2013 and eliminating the gradual phase-out of the program. For the 8.4 percent of Michigan workers currently unemployed—the third-highest unemployment rate in the nation—only the state-sponsored unemployment insurance, cut recently from 26 to 20 weeks of eligibility, remains; and
Whereas, The percentage of Americans unemployed for more than six months remains near historic highs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 37.7 percent of the unemployed, or 3.9 million Americans, are long-term unemployed. This is almost twelve percentage points higher than the previously recorded highest long-term unemployment rate of 26 percent in 1948. Moreover, these 3.9 million individuals are competing with the short-term unemployed and upcoming college graduates for jobs in an economy with 2 million fewer jobs than in December 2007; and
Whereas, The expiration of the EUC program is causing significant negative consequences for the long-term unemployed and our nation's efforts at economic recovery. Cutting emergency employment benefits has already affected approximately 1.3 million long-term unemployed Americans, including 44,000 Michigan residents. Moreover, by June 2014, an additional 1.9 million Americans, 86,500 from Michigan, would have qualified for these benefits but will find them unavailable. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that without an extension of the EUC program, the resultant drop in consumer demand would eliminate 310,000 jobs, exacerbating an already difficult job climate; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate, That we memorialize the Congress of the United States to restore the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program; and be it further
Resolved, That copies of this resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and the members of the Michigan congressional delegation.
