Mass. Unemployment Hits Five Percent: Kennedy Proposes Extending Benefits to 2003
By Randy Trick
WASHINGTON, Sept. 24, 2002–The Massachusetts job market, and Lawrence’s in particular, received a lot of bad news Wednesday, and a glimmer of some good.
Just as the Massachusetts Division of Employment and Training announced the state unemployment rate has jumped from 3.8 percent to 5 percent from August 2001 to August 2002, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) unveiled a legislative proposal to extend federal unemployment benefits through June 2003 in states with high unemployment.
Massachusetts is included in the list of high unemployment states, Kennedy told reporters at a press conference.
Despite Kennedy’s assurance, Massachusetts has only the 25th-highest unemployment rate in the nation, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. When Congress extended unemployment benefits in March 2002, many states received 26-week extensions, while the rest of the nation received 13-week extensions. However, Massachusetts stopped qualifying for the 26-week program in June when the state’s economy improved slightly.
During the recession in the early 1990s, the 15 states with the highest unemployment received longer extensions, ranging from 20 weeks to 33 weeks, while the other 35 states received extensions of 13 to 26 weeks (see sidebar).
In the Merrimack Valley, the unemployment news coming from Beacon Hill is harder to swallow than elsewhere in the state.
Unemployment in the Lawrence area reached 7.4 percent in August, up from 6 percent during the same month last year. Only the New Bedford area has a higher unemployment rate – 8.1 percent.
But 400 miles down the seaboard, the state’s delegation is proposing solutions.
Kennedy’s proposal, also written by New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, a fellow Democrat, comes as unemployment nationwide has increased by 2.2 million people, to 8.1 million currently collecting benefits.
For nearly 2 million of these unemployed, their benefits will expire in a few weeks, when the extension from last spring ends.
“The bill we introduce today will extend their benefits just as we have every recession over the past three decades,” Kennedy said.” Families are struggling, and we must act.”
Kennedy and his Democratic co-sponsors said they feel they can pass the bill in the Senate in time, but admit the House – where key Republicans already have denounced the bill – will be a tougher sell.
A statement Wednesday by the Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee said providing longer benefits would lead to more and longer unemployment.
Kennedy has support in the House from fellow Massachusetts lawmaker Rep. Marty Meehan, a Democrat from Lowell. He has been lining up support from his collogues for Kennedy’s proposal.
“The administration’s economic program is failing, and we must reach out to protect Massachusetts workers and their families that have lost jobs,” Meehan said.
Kennedy’s bill would stand a better chance of passing if President Bush were to get behind some kind of economic support package, Kennedy and his co-sponsors said.
“The Bush administration has fought efforts to provide adequate unemployment assistance to workers,” Kennedy said. “But the administration can no longer afford to ignore [the issue].”
The cost of extending the benefits will draw $14 billion from the federal Unemployment Benefit Trust Fund, Kennedy said. However, he said, the fund already has a surplus of twice that amount.
The unemployment fund comes from taxes on income and business profits and is meant to help those that cannot find jobs, Kennedy said.
“The funds are already there; they’re paid into that fund for this kind of emergency,” he said. “It’s absolutely irresponsible not to use the funds put aside by hardworking people to help.”
The extension bill may not see any action until the Senate finishes debating the Homeland Security Act, which Kennedy hoped would conclude this week. After that, he said, he expected his bill would be discussed.
Published in The Lawrence Eagle Tribune, in Massachusetts.
