The National Employment Law Project has released the following statement in response to the successful action of one senator to block, for a second time, the extension of existing federal jobless programs set to expire on April 5th.

The obstruction, this time by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), could force as many as 1 million unemployed workers to lose benefits in April, halt vital training and education services, and significantly disrupt state agencies’ efforts to administer benefits.

“It is unacceptable that Congress has, for a second time, failed to extend the existing federal benefits programs with so many people counting on this assistance. We have been down this road already and seen the turmoil it caused. Congress cannot continue to play games with people’s lives. They need to get the job done, now,” said Christine Owens, Executive Director of the National Employment Law Project.

“One million people are now newly at risk of losing benefits in April because of Congress’s failure to act, and 212,000 alone will lose benefits in the first week. It will be devastating if Congress takes a two-week break with such significant business left unfinished. There’s no break in the crisis for unemployed workers. The House has passed an extension, and now the Senate needs to get it done before the program is slated to expire,” said Owens.

“The delay in the extension comes at great expense to jobless workers and the U.S. economy. There are now 14.9 million unemployed Americans and long-term unemployment afflicts 6.1 million – over 40 percent of the unemployed. Over 11 million jobless workers are collecting some form of unemployment insurance, including nearly 5.7 million receiving extensions. There is much work to be done and workers simply cannot afford to go through this benefits renewal drama every month or two. Congress must approve this stopgap extension immediately, and then after the recess, extend the jobless programs through the end of 2010 so that we do not find ourselves in this situation again,” said Owens.

While the current stand-off is occasioned by Senator Tom Coburn’s (R-OK) displeasure that the 30-day extension would not be paid for with some budget offset, earlier this month eight Republican Senators joined all but one Democratic Senator in agreeing that unemployment insurance and COBRA extensions through the end of 2010 should be done through emergency spending. That led to the bi-partisan passage of the American Workers State and Business Relief Act, introduced by Senators Reid and Baucus, which would extend unemployment benefits and COBRA programs until December 31st, at a price of $70 billion over 10 years. The House has also approved a longer extension than the current 30-day stop-gap measure, and the two bills are awaiting reconciliation when the recess is over.

“It is time to close the loops and see this through to the finish. For the sake of millions of unemployed workers and the future of our economy, we cannot delay a full-year extension of jobless programs any longer,” concluded Owens.

Click here to view NELP’s state-by-state estimates of “Workers Prematurely Cut-Off of Federal Jobless Benefits During April 2010 Due to Expiration of the Recovery Act's UI Provisions”.