PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Rhode Island’s senior U.S. senator has filed legislation that would extend emergency unemployment benefits for six months, retroactive to when the program expired last year.
Democrat Jack Reed filed the new bill on Tuesday. He says the expiration on Dec. 28 of emergency benefits for the long-term unemployed has affected 2 million people in the U.S., including 8,000 in Rhode Island.
The federal program had since 2008 provided extra benefits to those who exhausted their 26 weeks of regular state benefits.
Rhode Island’s December unemployment rate of 9.3 percent is the highest in the country.
Reed calls the federal program a lifeline and says many people continue to struggle in a still-difficult job market.
“This is the fabric of Rhode Island,” said U.S. Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) about Block Island. “I often tell people to come to the island. It’s a wonderful place to live and visit. I think it’s one of the loveliest places in the country.”
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Mayor Scott Avedisian never thought he’d see the day when he and a group of dignitaries would celebrate $250 million in improvement projects at T.F. Green Airport that had long been opposed by the city.
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With the U.S. Senate expected to consider legislation that would lower student loan payments, U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse held a discussion Thursday...