Move it, senators: Extend jobless benefits

CONGRESS must ignore the sighs and eye rolls of conservative economics professors and others in comfortable sinecures. Vote to extend federal unemployment benefits.

For all the urgency behind an extension of benefits — an estimated 314,000 Americans will lose coverage by the end of the month, and 1.4 million by the end of the year — discussions get bogged down in ideology and politics.

In the midst of the worst economic downturn in decades, the House last week voted to provide an additional 13 weeks of unemployment benefits where joblessness tops 8.5 percent. That would cover 25 states, including Washington, and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott of Seattle introduced the successful House bill, but so far no action is scheduled on a parallel bill in the Senate.

As ordinary families struggle to pay the bills and meet the mortgage, skeptical voices argue the unemployed are idle by choice, and that government checks are another excuse to stay home under the covers.

McDermott told his colleagues his office is getting calls from "decent, hardworking Americans from North Carolina to California," who still cannot find work a year after losing their jobs, and need help keeping their heads above water.

The National Employment Law Project reports a record 50.7 percent of the unemployed cannot find work six months after receiving benefits.

Reconciling what the Senate may or may not do with what has passed the House will consume time as families try to reconcile their budgets with grocery and medical bills. Get a move on.

Karen Turner, Washington's Department of Labor and Industries commissioner, met last week with colleagues from around the nation to promote an extension of benefits. She reminded Senate debaters "to remember that our unemployment insurance system exists precisely for times like these."

Persistent, pernicious joblessness means people are burning through initial unemployment protection at the state level, and now exhausting benefits backed by federal dollars. Additional extended coverage is set to expire in December.

Economic recovery is the answer everyone is looking for. A job. Ignore the ideologues and cynics: Extend benefits.