Unemployment Benefits at Risk as Senate Rejects Jobs Bill

Unemployment allowances for six million Americans are at accident now that the United State Senate has abandoned Obama’s jobs bill.

The Senate voted 50-49 in favor of the bill Tuesday. But it failed to get the 60 votes required to move forward the $447 billion plan.

This rejection, while not a surprise, still comes as a great disappointment to millions of unemployed Americans who accept been waiting for the government to do something other than argue about their job conception plans. Now, the unemployed are assured to see their benefit checks stop once January arrives.

More than six million Americans are set to lose federal unemployment allowances in 2012, with 1.8 million benefits expiring in January alone, according to new abstracts from the National Employment Law Project.

President Obama’s $447 billion American Jobs Act, if accepted, would have continued the federal unemployment allowances for addition year.

While several Washington spectators say the administration’s jobs bill was dead from the beginning, it’s possible the unemployment benefits could be extended and passed through Congress on its own, or created as a bill of its own before year’s end. The addendum is estimated to amount $44 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Extending unemployment allowance is one of the few areas that has received bipartisan support. While some Republican experts feel that unemployment benefits deter citizens from taking new jobs, many feel afraid to cut off the checks as unemployment remains at a stubbornly top 9.1%.

Supporters, meanwhile, say unemployment allowances are an essential for those without jobs, especially as unemployment remains high and job opportunities remain low. There were 3.6 million people receiving federal unemployment allowances as of mid-September, according to the Labor Department.

The mean time that the unemployed have been workless hit a record 40.5 week low during September. Also, some economists say unemployment allowances stimulate the economy because the unemployed usually spend their benefit checks immediately.

Still, pushing an additional extension past lawmakers would take much political influence. Federal emergency benefits started in June of 2008 and have been extended or increased eight times since that time, including on four occasions in 2010. When the government passed its 13-month extension last December, it was assumed by many to be the last one given.

The following is at stake: The unemployment have the opportunity to collect up to 26 weeks of state allowances before transitioning to the extended federal program. Federal benefits consist of up to 53 weeks of emergency benefits, which is separated into four levels, and up to an additional 20 weeks of extended compensation. The maximum extension period is 99 weeks.

So those who reach the end of state benefits after the beginning of January will not have the privilege of applying for federal compensation. The same goes for the unemployed that are now collecting federal allowances, who will not be able to progress to the next level once they complete their present one.