Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse released the statement below regarding today’s successful vote in the Senate to revive the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program and to retroactively extend benefits to those who lost them since the program expired in December of 2013:
“Unemployment insurance benefits can mean the difference between paying bills and losing a home, and I strongly support restoring this lifeline to the thousands of Rhode Island families who have lost benefits in recent months. Today’s successful vote was thanks largely to the tireless efforts of Senator Jack Reed, who led the charge on this issue in the Senate and managed to craft a bipartisan compromise. I was proud to stand with Senator Reed to support resuming extended benefits, and I hope House Republicans will act quickly to pass this critical bill into law.”
Since the expiration of Emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits at the end of 2013, roughly 9,000 Rhode Islanders and more than two million Americans have lost their benefits.
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