Urge Congress to Extend Unemployment Insurance

December 13th, 2011

Take Action Now!!

Millions of American families are relying on federal unemployment insurance in this tough economic climate. Nearly two million Americans will lose their unemployment insurance in January alone – and over 6 million in 2012 – if Congress lets the extension expire on December 31st.

Congress must act now to extend unemployment insurance. Tell your congressperson to renew the Federal Unemployment Insurance program through 2012.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and other members of Faith Advocates for Jobs Campaign have taken a leadership role in advocating for the extension of unemployment insurance in the halls of Congress. Bishop Stephen Blaire of Stockton, California, chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) said in a December 12 letter to Congress: “For millions of American workers and their families, economic hardship continues and grows. The US Catholic bishops have long advocated that the most effective way to build a just economy is the availability of decent work at decent wages. When the economy fails to generate sufficient jobs, there is a moral obligation to help protect the life and dignity of unemployed workers and their families.”

Bishop Blaire wrote that the current “pervasive economic pain” includes a median length of joblessness of 10 months, and over four job seekers for every opening. He wrote that Pope John Paul II called such conditions in “a real social disaster” and that the pope said the “obligation to provide unemployment benefits” to workers and their families is a fundamental principle of “the right to life and subsistence.”

Your elected officials need to hear from you on this matter. Send an email from the Interfaith Worker Justice website.