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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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State
Rep. Deberah Kula |
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Kula supports bill to extend unemployment benefits
HARRISBURG, July 23 – State Rep. Deberah Kula, D-Fayette/Westmoreland, this week is reiterating her support for legislation that would that would give thousands of Pennsylvania workers whose unemployment benefits are in the process of expiring access to an additional seven weeks of benefits.
The bill, which Kula co-sponsored and that passed the House on July 7, is awaiting approval in the Senate Labor and Industry Committee. The legislation (H.B. 1770), sponsored by state Rep. Marc Gergely, vice chairman of the House Labor Relations Committee, would prevent about 57,000 Pennsylvanians from losing unemployment benefits through December, by temporarily changing the mechanism Pennsylvania uses to trigger extended unemployment benefits.
Switching the state's trigger to the total unemployment rate, as proposed by the bill, would allow the state to draw on $145 million in federal stimulus money to offer seven weeks of additional emergency unemployment benefits.
"Hundreds of unemployed people in Fayette and Westmoreland counties have exhausted their unemployment benefits," Kula said. "This bill would give local residents and tens of thousands of other out-of-work Pennsylvanians the only safety net they have while we weather this economic storm. I am urging the Senate to act as quickly as possible."
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