Dear Friend:
As you probably know, Congress passed legislation this week to extend unemployment insurance for nearly 2 million Americans who would have otherwise lost their benefits by the end of the year.
H.R.3548, the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2009, will extend benefits by 14 weeks for jobless workers across the entire country and by 20 weeks in states with unemployment rates higher than 8.5 percent -- including California, where the unemployment rate is 12.2 percent. The bill also includes a provision to extend homebuyer tax credits and a tax provision to ease the burden of the economic downturn on struggling businesses.
This bill comes at a critical time, when millions of Americans and at least 170,000 Californians are at risk of losing their unemployment benefits. Extending benefits will not only help laid-off workers support their families while they look for jobs, it will also provide a boost to our economy.
Extending unemployment insurance is crucial now because more than one in three jobless workers have been out of work for at least six months, and every day 7,000 Americans lose their unemployment benefits.
Extending unemployment insurance also will help stimulate the economy. Every $1 spent on unemployment benefits generates $1.61 in new economic demand. The legislation is also fiscally responsible, with the Congressional Budget Office concluding that the benefits extension will be fully offset.
H.R.3548 includes a homebuyer tax credit provision that extends the $8,000 tax credit for first-ime homebuyers until April 30, 2010. The bill also gives a $6,500 credit to homebuyers who have been in their current residence for the last five years or more. The homebuyer credit also includes tax relief for military personnel and members of the Foreign Service and intelligence community, and anti-fraud language to prevent abuse of the tax credits.
Sincerely,
Barbara Boxer
United States Senator
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To respond to this message, please click here. This link will take you to a webpage where you can reply to messages that you receive from Senator Boxer’s office.