From our friends at the Coalition on Human Needs:

The Senate will vote tonight (Monday) on final passage of the bill to restore unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless - finally!

Please don't leave anything to chance:  tell your Senators to vote yes.
And tell the House to take a vote.

click here to send emails.

As of April 5, more than 2 million unemployed workers have lost jobless benefits because Congress hasn’t acted.
The Senate seems ready to help - you can make sure they do.
But House Speaker John Boehner is using every excuse he can think of to prevent UI from coming up for a vote.

Where things stand:
The Senate has taken all the procedural votes.  Now the vote on final passage is scheduled for Monday, April 7, at about 5:30 p.m. 
But Speaker Boehner and his leadership team are preventing UI from being voted on.  First they said it needed to be paid for.  It is paid for in the Senate bill.  Then they said the expiration has gone on for so long, it would be too hard to provide retroactive benefits.  But Jeff Frischmann, head of Nevada state unemployment insurance operations, says "We would stand ready and do it it...We'll get through it, just like we have in the past."

What to do:  click here, to send emails to your Senators and Representative.
TODAY - Monday, April 7:  Contact your Senators* and tell them to vote to restore Emergency Unemployment Compensation.

Contact your Rep. and tell him/her to urge Speaker John Boehner to bring up the Senate bill to restore Unemployment Compensation for a House vote ASAP.

Background:
The Senate bill to restore Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) is a bipartisan agreement on a 5-month restoration, with those who were denied assistance after the program expired on December 28 will get retroactive help.  The bill is an important step forward, made possible because you and many thousands of constituents held their senators accountable.  But it still needs the final vote.  So please send this email to your senators so they know you’re still paying attention, because jobless workers desperately need this help.

Your representative needs a different message.  Speaker Boehner has refused so far to bring a bill to the floor to restore unemployment insurance.  So every House member must be urged to tell the Speaker to bring the Senate bill to the floor and to vote for its passage.   

Each week since EUC was allowed to expire, another 72,000 workers and their families have been cut off.  Through April 5, more than 2.3 million people have been denied assistance.  More than $5 billion in benefits has been lost to families and communities.  There are still not enough jobs and too many out of work for more than six months.

*Senator Cruz (R-TX) did not vote, so he has been omitted from the list.  But please be encouraged to contact him to urge a yes vote.

Michael Petit
President
Every Child Matters Education Fund

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Make a tax-deductible donation at www.everychildmatters.org.

Every Child Matters is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization whose mission is to make children a national political priority. For more information, visit www.everychildmatters.org

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