Last week, it seemed likely that extended unemployment insurance would lapse at the end of the year or only be continued for three months. But then our national partner, US Action and the AFL-CIO held a press event with Speaker Pelosi and a number of Senators.
Hearing from the unemployed themselves, brought the human dimensions of unemployment home to our political leaders. You can get a feel for the impact of those stories by looking at the first video, which the AFL-CIO put out. These stories stiffened the spines of the Democratic leadership and led them to insist that the unemployment insurance extension be included in any deal over taxes. In the course of the debate over the issue, Senator Casey referred more than once to how his meeting with the unemployed moved him.
The news from Washington has not been great. We are not happy with the compromise that President Obama has made with the Senate Republicans. But the one good piece of news is that there is an agreement to extend unemployment 13 months. This is an extremely important achievement, one that will help a hundred thousand Pennsyvlanias an millions of Americans, those who have been hut the worst by the recession. The staff of Penn ACTION is very proud of the work we did to make this happen. We hope you are, too.