{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://foster.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/foster-urges-congress-to-extend-unemployment-benefits", "Foster Urges Congress To Extend Unemployment Benefits", "2013-12-11", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "IL", "Bill Foster", "F000454", "foster.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, D.C. \u2013 Today, Congressman Bill Foster (IL-11) became a cosponsor of H.R. 3546, the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2013.\u00a0 The legislation would renew the federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation program for an additional year.\u00a0 If no action is taken, on December 28th, 1.3 million Americans, including 20,000 military veterans, will immediately lose their unemployment benefits.\u00a0 In 2014, 3.6 million additional people will also lose their unemployment benefits beyond 26 weeks.\u00a0\nIn Illinois, an estimated 230,500 people would lose their unemployment benefits through 2014.\nThe legislation would effectively extend current law through 2014, providing unemployed Americans with a vital lifeline as they continue to recover from the recession.\u00a0\nAn identical bill has been introduced in the Senate.\n\u201cOur economy is still recovering from the worst recession since the Great Depression,\u201d said Foster. \u201cNow is not the time to cut off this important lifeline.\u00a0 It is critical that we extend unemployment benefits and prevent 1.3 million Americans still searching for employment from having their safety nets pulled out from under them on December 28th.\u201d\nEven after 45 consecutive months of private-sector job growth, and reaching the lowest unemployment rate in 5 years, we still have work to do to reach pre-crisis employment levels.\u00a0\nAverage weekly unemployment benefits have already been dropped $42 to $256 a week due to sequestration.\u00a0\nNot only does unemployment insurance help those struggling to find employment, it helps our economic recovery by supporting consumer demand.\u00a0 It\u2019s estimated that failing to extend unemployment benefits would cost 240,000 jobs in 2014, including 13,345 jobs in Illinois.\u00a0 Additionally, the Congressional Budget Office and JP Morgan estimate that failure to extend benefits would lower GDP by .2 to .4 percentage points.\nMore information on the economic benefits of extending unemployment insurance is available here.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://foster.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/foster-urges-congress-to-extend-unemployment-benefits"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.664006918668747, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}