Pelosi urges House action on Extended Unemployment Compensation (EUC)
Washington, DC – Noting that hundreds of thousands of the long-term unemployed are veterans, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi urged fellow legislators pass a measure to restore emergency unemployment benefits, at a press conference here June 19.
About 3 million unemployed workers have been denied unemployment insurance since the program was allowed to lapse at the end of last year. Republicans have had the final say over legislation to bring back the long-term unemployment benefits since the December 2013 budget compromise, where the Democratic leadership failed to insist on including an extension in the budget.
A measure to restore extended unemployment passed the Senate earlier this year, but it has been held up by House Speaker John Boehner.
A high rate of unemployment has persisted in the U.S. and much of Europe since 2007, when capitalism underwent its worst crisis since the 1930s.