 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| 1_9169 |
 |
 |
|
From: America's Future | www.ourfuture.org Date: October 10, 2001 ----------------------------------------------- There will be an unusual meeting of the House Democratic Caucus at the end of the day tomorrow (Thursday). The meeting itself was forced by a little-used petition supported by a large number of Members. At the meeting, Representatives Kucinich, Lee, Owens, McKinney, DeFazio, and other members of the Progressive Caucus will offer a motion to expand Unemployment Insurance in any economic stimulus package announced by the House Democratic Caucus. (If this meeting had not been called, the Democratic leadership would have announced an economic stimulus package on Thursday with a smaller unemployment benefit increase.) The larger UI proposal has been endorsed by: SEIU, UAW, CWA, USWA and IAM. All organizations wishing to support the proposal should contact any and all members of the Democratic Caucus, as all will have to vote on the motion to beef up the Unemployment Insurance portion of the Democratic stimulus package. The motion reads: Resolved, that in order to protect more Americans who face prolonged unemployment, that the Democratic Caucus hereby goes on record as supporting a temporary $62 billion unemployment insurance benefit increase as part of an economic stimulus package. This level of supplement is adopted because it is necessary to bring the average unemployment benefit on par with the federal poverty level, to extend benefits for a total of 52 weeks, to expand eligibility to include part-time workers, seasonal workers, recent entrants into the labor force, and others, to eliminate the "waiting week", and to repeal the tax on UI benefits. This supplement will be funded by the federal government, and will not impose new costs on state governments or private employers.
|
