Congress Adjourns Without Extending Jobless Benefits

OPEN MINDS, The Behavioral Health & Social Service Industry Analyst Industry News Congress adjourned for the year on December 9, 2003, without approving what would have been the fourth extension of the Temporary Emergency Unemployment Compensation program. The program, extended three times since it was initiated in March 2002, gives workers an extra 13 weeks of federally-funded jobless benefits after they exhaust their mandated 26 weeks of state benefits. Last year, Congress let the program run out a few days after Christmas and reauthorized it when it reconvened in January 2003. That is not likely to happen again when . . .