WASHINGTON — For a bipartisan majority of senators, providing three months or six months of extra unemployment checks to more than 1 million jobless people is a better way to dig the economy out of a recession than just printing tax-rebate checks.
Some economists agree, and undoubtedly so do the nearly 1.3 million unemployed workers who face losing an average of $282 a week in benefits before June.
But there is opposition leading up to a Senate vote this week on whether to add an extension of jobless benefits to a $161 billion House -passed combination of tax rebates and business tax cuts.
Consider Deborah El, a 64-year-old diabetic who lives in Pittsburgh. She will exhaust her 26 weeks of regular benefits this month after being laid off from her job as a program coordinator at a nonprofit literacy agency.
El is taking care of her 26-year-old disabled daughter, Orissa, while also looking for a job and trying to find a new place to live.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m really scared,” she said. “I’ve never been like this before. I’ve always been employed; I’ve always worked. I went back to school a few years ago and got a master’s degree, but it doesn’t mean anything.”
As the economy has slowed, more people have signed up for jobless benefits. The situation can only get worse given the report last week that employers cut payrolls by 17,000 in January — a job loss not seen since the tail of the last recession in 2003.
The unemployment rate also is on a generally upward trend. Last week, the number of laid-off workers filing applications for unemployment benefits soared by 69,000 to 375,000.
The National Employment Law Project estimates that 1.28 million people now collecting unemployment checks will be unable to find a job in the next six months and will lose that help.
The plan before the Senate would cost $14 billion and extend unemployment payments for 13 weeks nationwide to people whose 26 weeks of regular benefits have run out. People without jobs in states where the unemployment rate has averaged 6.5 percent or more for three months could qualify for an additional 13 weeks of benefits.
