EKB News

KENTUCKY & WEST VIRGINIA....
While Republicans continued to cite concerns about the growing national debt, the House rejected a bill Tuesday to extend unemployment benefits. The last extension expired at the end of May. Democrats say more than 1 million people have already lost their benefits, and, without the extension, payments will continue to phase out for more than 200,000 people a week. Tuesday, House Democrats brought up a standalone bill on unemployment benefits under a special procedure in which no amendments were allowed and debate was limited. Under the procedure, the bill needed a two-thirds majority to pass. The vote was 261-155. Nearly all Democrats voted in favor of the bill, while most Republicans opposed it. The measure would have provided up to 99 weekly unemployment checks averaging $335 to people whose 26 weeks of state-paid benefits have run out. The benefits would have been available through the end of November, at a cost of $33.9 billion, which would have added to the budget deficit.