Governor calls on Senate to extend jobless benefits for hundreds of thousands of Mich. workers

Mich. gov wants Senate to extend jobless benefits

LANSING, Mich. — Thousands of Michigan residents will begin losing their unemployment benefits next month if the U.S. Senate doesn’t extend them by Sunday, Gov. Jennifer Granholm said Thursday.

The U.S. House passed a bill extending the benefits through the end of June, but the Senate this week passed a far narrower bill that didn’t extend the benefits.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said the Senate may take up a stopgap bill by early next week to help the unemployed, but Granholm would like to see senators move sooner.

“I’m hopeful that the Senate will act either today or tomorrow,” Granholm told reporters. Without the extension, “the implications for the safety net of Michigan are just horrific.”

Michigan’s Unemployment Insurance Agency sent out letters last week warning residents they could lose their unemployment checks starting next month. The state has the nation’s highest unemployment rate at 14.6 percent.

“Without congressional action, some 500,000 unemployed Michigan workers will run out of unemployment benefits by July,” UIA director Stephen Geskey warned.

That’s bad news for around 290,000 state residents collecting federally funded unemployment checks, since they may not be able to get up to 20 more weeks of extended federal benefits when their other benefits run out.

It’s also bad news for 230,000 unemployed residents collecting checks through the state-funded unemployment program, since they would miss the deadline to apply for the additional federal payments.

Workers also could see their unemployment checks drop by $25 a week if the Senate doesn’t act.

Most of the governors attending the National Governors Association conference in Washington earlier this week urged Congress to act.

“It’s not just Michigan, it’s across the country that people are going to see their benefits eliminated,” Granholm said. “What happens if people lose their ability to put food on the table or to pay any basic amount of mortgage?”

“We just don’t have the means to be able to support that level of need absent an extension of the unemployment insurance,” she added.