More than 23,500 Virginians’ unemployment benefits will continue now that President Barack Obama has signed the emergency extension legislation into law.
The Virginia Employment Commission estimated that 23,500 people statewide would exhaust their benefits and become ineligible to advance to another tier of extended benefits after congressional inaction led to a lapse in the weekly payments, spokeswoman Joyce Fogg said earlier this month.
Rep. Tom Perriello, D-5th District, blasted the Senate this summer for failing to pass an emergency extension.
“I’m glad we were able to extend these important benefits to the 23,000 Virginians who earned them,” Perriello said in a statement Thursday, “but I will not be satisfied until the Senate also stops obstructing multiple jobs bills that support small business, manufacturing, teachers and construction.
“... The Republicans need to stop playing political games and stop blocking efforts to get people back to work. Anything less than that is selling the American people short.”
According to the VEC, there were 7,368 claimants of unemployment benefits in the 5th District in May, and 1,360 in the Danville metropolitan area. More than 48 percent of claimants in the Danville area had exhausted their benefits in May.
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