“Extension of unemployment insurance is welcome and long overdue, but Congress still needs to act on other measures critically important to job creation and economic recovery,” said MECEP Executive Director Christopher St. John. “We are very disappointed that Congress failed to renew both the $25 per week UI supplemental benefit and the federal subsidy for COBRA health insurance contained in the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Extending these provisions would have supported more jobs.”
“Failure to continue enhanced federal assistance to Maine and other states facing budget shortfalls due to increased Medicaid costs threatens thousands of private and public sector jobs and our fragile economic recovery,” St. John added. “We are grateful to Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins for their votes to extend unemployment insurance, and we urge them and Representatives Mike Michaud and Chellie Pingree to insist that Congress act as soon as possible on these other key measures.”
