{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://kuster.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/kuster-signs-onto-bill-to-extend-critical-unemployment-insurance-for", "Kuster Signs Onto Bill to Extend Critical Unemployment Insurance for Granite State Families", "2013-11-21", "2013", "2013-11", "Democrat", "House", "NH", "Ann Kuster", "K000382", "kuster.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Legislation would renew the federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation program for an additional year, giving Granite Staters struggling to find work a vital lifeline\nWithout Congressional action, 1.3 million Americans \u2013 including 1,300 Granite Staters \u2013 will be cut off from unemployment insurance benefits just days after Christmas\nKuster: We must provide assistance to long-term unemployed and focus like a laser on job creation\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 With critical unemployment insurance for the long-term unemployed set to expire just days after Christmas, Congresswoman Annie Kuster (NH-02) today signed onto legislation to renew the federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation program for another year. The legislation would extend the program through 2014, providing a vital lifeline to Granite Staters and other Americans who are still struggling to find work as the economy continues to recover from the worst recession since the Great Depression. Kuster, who also reiterated her call for Congress to focus like a laser on job creation, is hosting a Career and Opportunities Fair tomorrow in Nashua to help bring together New Hampshire employers looking to hire and workers looking for jobs.\nKuster called for an extension of unemployment insurance benefits earlier this month and highlighted a report which estimated that without Congressional action, 1.3 million Americans \u2013 including 1,300 Granite Staters \u2013 would be cut off from their benefits on December 28.\n\u201cWithout Congressional action, more than one thousand Granite Staters will lose their unemployment benefits just days after Christmas,\u201d Kuster said. \u201cWe can\u2019t let that happen. Losing these vital benefits will be a painful blow to New Hampshire families who are already struggling to find jobs. Congress needs to step up, extend these benefits, and focus like a laser on job creation.\u201d\nLast year, unemployment compensation helped keep 2.5 million Americans out of poverty, including 600,000 children. Not only would losing these benefits hurt New Hampshire families, it would also have a negative impact on economic growth. Recent estimates have found that allowing the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program to expire would cost our economy 310,000 jobs and reduce first-quarter economic growth by roughly four-tenths of a percentage point.\nThe Emergency Unemployment Compensation program was first authorized in 2008 and has been reauthorized on several occasions since then, most recently as part of the Jan. 1, 2013 fiscal cliff agreement, with the number of weeks of federal benefits substantially reduced over the last two years.\nKey findings from the report Kuster highlighted earlier this month include:\n 1,300 Granite Staters will lose unemployment insurance on December 28, 2013\n\tFailure to extend unemployment insurance would cost economy 310,000 jobs, according to the Economic Policy Institute\n\t37% of unemployed have been without a job for longer than six months\n\tEconomy still has 2 million fewer jobs than before Great Recession began\n A member of the House Small Business Committee, Kuster has prioritized efforts to foster job creation, grow the economy, and expand opportunity for middle class families.\u00a0Earlier this month, she toured a West Lebanon brewery to discuss legislation that would cut taxes on New Hampshire\u2019s small brewers, visited a Salem company to highlight the importance of boosting small business exports, and hosted a 21st century workforce roundtable in Hudson with students, business owners, and education leaders.\nShe has also introduced legislation to extend and expand a federal pilot program to help boost small businesses exports, supported legislation to make permanent the federal research and development tax credit, helped lead the fight to prevent pending regulations from harming New England farmers, and worked to protect New Hampshire small businesses from burdensome online sales tax collection requirements.\n###", 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://kuster.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/kuster-signs-onto-bill-to-extend-critical-unemployment-insurance-for"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7320470176637173, "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"}