THOMPSON: MORE THAN $64 MILLION DRAINED FROM CALIFORNIA ECONOMY IN UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS IN ONE WEEK ALONE

– U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-5), a senior member of the House Committee on Ways and Means, today reiterated his call on the House Majority to pass legislation extending emergency unemployment insurance as $64,858,382 was drained from California's economy during the first week of expired federal benefits. On December 28th, nearly 214,000 people in California lost an average $303 weekly benefit when the federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation program expired. An additional 12,531 people in California will lose benefits each week during the first half of 2014. These figures are based on Department of Labor (DOL) data.

"When folks get emergency unemployment insurance, they don't save it. This money is spent on rent, groceries and utilities. It supports jobs and businesses in our community," said Thompson. "Not only is emergency unemployment insurance an important economic lifeline that helps make sure millions of American families are able to heat their homes and put food on the table as they look for a job, it's a strong economic stimulant. Failing to extend these benefits hurts economic growth, and the only way to solve long-term unemployment is by creating jobs and growing our economy. This self inflicted economic drain will only get worse as more than 12,000 people will lose their benefits each week until Congress acts. We need to extend these benefits now."

Based on DOL data, $400 million was drained from the U.S. economy during the first week of expired federal emergency unemployment insurance. An additional 72,000 Americans will lose emergency unemployment insurance each week during the first half of 2014.

The federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation program took effect in 2008 when it was signed into law by President George W. Bush, and has been reauthorized several times as our economy continues to recover from the worst downturn since the Great Depression. Despite the economic progress made since 2008, there are still more than 1 million fewer jobs than there were before the recession began, and more than 4 million Americans have been out of work for six months or longer.

Failure to extend federal emergency unemployment insurance will cost our economy 240,000 jobs, including 46,000 jobs in California, over the next year – hurting economic growth and making it harder for the unemployed to find work.

Thompson is a co-author of H.R. 3546, the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2013. H.R. 3546 would extend emergency unemployment insurance for one year and has been referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.


Congressman Mike Thompson is proud to represent California's 5th Congressional District, which includes all or part of Contra Costa, Lake, Napa, Solano and Sonoma Counties. He is a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Rep. Thompson is also a member of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition and chairs the bipartisan, bicameral Congressional Wine Caucus.

# # #