WASHINGTON - Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-MI) today issued the following statement regarding the March jobs report and the cuts to unemployment insurance programs because of the sequester:
Ways and Means Ranking Member Sander Levin: “Republican willingness to stop governing and simply let the sequester roll over our economy threatens to stall the economic recovery. The unwillingness of Congressional Republicans to work toward a sensible alternative to the sequester hits the economy and the unemployed with a double dose of bad news. First, it is threatening to stall a labor market that had been improving. And second, the sequester directly cuts unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed by over 10 percent. This further hurts Americans who are already suffering, and it undercuts our economic recovery."
Background:
This is the first week that Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) will be reduced under the sequester. (Regular, state-provided benefits, usually the first 6 months of unemployment benefits, are not impacted by sequestration.) States are allowed to implement the EUC reduction later in the year, but any later action requires a bigger reduction in the weekly EUC benefit. For states implementing the EUC reduction this week, the sequester requires a 10.7% reduction in the weekly unemployment benefit.
