Unemployment Extension Set To Expire

For many who lost their jobs after the Sept. 11 attacks, unemployment checks are about to run out.

Congress hustled to add 13 more weeks of help in March but seems to have little appetite do it again.

The cutoff could be a particularly harsh blow in New York, where the economy is still hurting from the terrorist attacks. Some 100,000 New Yorkers could suddenly be left without a means of support as benefits expire.

Some 1.4 million people nationally have applied for the 13-week extension, 137,000 of them New Yorkers. Of the New Yorkers 100,300 were among the first to sign up for the extended benefits so they would be among the first to fall off the rolls. Unclear is how many may have obtained jobs recently, officials said.

In the Empire State, the issue has turned political.

Republican Gov. George Pataki, accused by Democratic rivals Andrew Cuomo and H. Carl McCall of failing to do enough to get benefits extended, wrote Monday to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao and the New York congressional delegation seeking help to secure 13 more weeks of benefits for New York's unemployed.

Anti-poverty organizations in New York are bracing for a surge in food bank use, welfare applications and other assistance.

"I think we're going to see some real pressure on the safety net," said Shelly Nortz, deputy policy director for the New York State Coalition for the Homeless.

Food stamp applications in New York have already risen and Nortz and other advocates say it is likely to balloon even more.

"Already the need is more than we can handle," said Joel Berger, executive director of New York City Coalition Against Hunger. "Undoubtedly, this is going to make things even worse."

Congress tried to take care of the problem in the economic stimulus package earlier this year by creating a trigger device that would extend benefits automatically in states with high rates of people on unemployment insurance that exhibit a sharp spike from prior rates.

Under that federal formula, California, New Jersey, Oregon and Washington qualify for extensions. New York does not, even though the state's unemployment rate is above the national average of 5.8 percent.

New York State's unemployment rate is 6.1 percent and New York City's is 7.7 percent.

The federal government also gave states $8 billion in May from Washington's unemployment coffers that could be used to extend benefits. But New York has already spent its $491 million, in part to repay a $189 million federal loan to keep the state's unemployment insurance fund afloat.

Senate Democrats are preparing a proposal to extend benefits but details are unclear. A spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert said he knew of no plans to revisit the issue.