NEWS RELEASE

Washington, D.C. - With unemployment benefits set to expire for many Minnesotans, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), along with Senators Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Pat Leahy (D-VT), Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Chris Dodd (D-CT), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Tom Udall (D-NM), Mark Udall (D-CO), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Mark Begich (D-AK), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Al Franken (D-MN) and Ted Kaufman (D-DE) Wednesday, Sept. 30 called on the Senate Finance Committee and Senate leaders to extend unemployment benefits for all states.

The senators sent a letter to the Finance Committee and the Majority and Minority Leaders saying that unemployment benefits should be extended equitably to all workers regardless of states.

Existing proposals would extend more unemployment benefits to states with unemployment levels of 8.5 percent or above.  Currently Minnesota would not be covered equally because it has an unemployment rate of approximately 8 percent.  The letter calls on the Finance Committee to extend unemployment benefits to the 23 states that would not be covered as extensively under the existing proposals.

“Minnesotans who have exhausted their unemployment benefits need relief, and I’m working with Senate leaders and colleagues to bring that relief as soon as possible,” said Klobuchar.  “I’m working to ensure that Minnesotans get the relief they need sooner rather than later and to make sure Minnesotans get their fair share of federal dollars.”

Full text of the letter is below.

September 30, 2009

The Honorable Harry Reid                                         The Honorable Mitch McConnell
Majority Leader                                                          Republican Leader
Capitol Building, S-221                                              Capitol Building, S-230
Washington, DC 20510                                              Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Max Baucus                                       The Honorable Charles Grassley
Chairman                                                                     Ranking Member
Committee on Finance                                                Committee on Finance
219 Dirksen Senate Office Building                          219 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510                                              Washington, DC 20510

Majority Leader Reid, Republic Leader McConnell, Chairman Baucus, and Ranking Member Grassley,

Hundreds of thousands of workers will run out of unemployment benefits by the end of September.  On September 22nd, to address this pending crisis, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 3548, the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2009, which will extend unemployment benefits by up to 13 weeks.

However, H.R. 3548 limits this extension of benefits to only those workers in states where the unemployment rate is a three‐month average of 8.5 percent, or a 13‐week insured unemployment rate above 6 percent.  These criteria exclude hundreds of thousands of jobless workers in 23 states: Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Wyoming.

The challenges faced by unemployed workers in these excluded states are equally severe and we strongly urge the Senate Finance Committee to craft legislation that extends unemployment benefits equitably, to all workers, regardless of their state.

Sincerely,

Senator Jeanne Shaheen
Senator Amy Klobuchar
Senator Pat Leahy
Senator Daniel Akaka
Senator Daniel Inouye
Senator Chris Dodd
Senator Jeff Bingaman
Senator Al Franken
Senator Tom Udall
Senator Mark Udall
Senator Ted Kaufman
Senator Byron Dorgan
Senator Michael Bennet
Senator Mark Begich
Senator Joe Lieberman
Senator Barbara Mikulski
Senator Bernie Sanders
Senator Ben Cardin