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CNN Live Saturday
Unemployment Benefits for 800,000 End Tonight
Aired December 28, 2002 - 18:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: A rough holiday will get rougher for about 800,000 people. Their unemployment benefits end at midnight. CNN's Jeanne Meserve looks at the problem.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It will not be a happy new year for Michelle Wiley. With the cut off of extended unemployment benefits it will be a struggle to support herself and her son on $700 a month in child support and the generosity of friends and family.
MICHELLE WILEY, LOSING UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS: I have never been unemployed. This is my very first time being unemployed in the seven years that I've worked.
MESERVE: In the six months of searching Wiley has not received on job offer. And she's asking Washington for help.
WILEY: I'm asking you to listen to me. And use empathy and see the world through my eyes, just for one minute.
MESERVE: Wiley is one of 750,000 Americans being left to fend for themselves financially, because the temporary emergency unemployment compensation program is expiring. The program gave 13 weeks of federal benefits to jobless workers whose state unemployment had run out.
MESERVE (on camera): Congress knew the cut off was looming, but left town without extending the program, because of differences between a bi-partisan Senate plan and a House Republican plan.
(voice over): Democrats have tried to cast the House Republicans as Scrooge for letting the program lapse.
SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: They ran out the clock and went home for the holidays without even allowing a simple vote.
MESERVE: An unemployment rate of 6 percent has moved the issue to the tip-top of the administration's agenda as well.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: One of my first priorities for the new Congress will be an extension of unemployment benefits for Americans who need them. MESERVE: Republicans leadership is weighing a proposal that would allow those that did not receive the entire 13 weeks of federal benefits because of the expiration to collect them. It would also provide nine weeks of benefits to the jobless in states with high unemployment rates.
The leading Democratic plan would guarantee all unemployed workers a total of 26 weeks for federal benefits.
It is impossible to say what formula will win passage, but a top House aid says it is a 100 percent certainty something will when Congress reconvenes in early January.
Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 28, 2002 - 18:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: A rough holiday will get rougher for about 800,000 people. Their unemployment benefits end at midnight. CNN's Jeanne Meserve looks at the problem.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It will not be a happy new year for Michelle Wiley. With the cut off of extended unemployment benefits it will be a struggle to support herself and her son on $700 a month in child support and the generosity of friends and family.
MICHELLE WILEY, LOSING UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS: I have never been unemployed. This is my very first time being unemployed in the seven years that I've worked.
MESERVE: In the six months of searching Wiley has not received on job offer. And she's asking Washington for help.
WILEY: I'm asking you to listen to me. And use empathy and see the world through my eyes, just for one minute.
MESERVE: Wiley is one of 750,000 Americans being left to fend for themselves financially, because the temporary emergency unemployment compensation program is expiring. The program gave 13 weeks of federal benefits to jobless workers whose state unemployment had run out.
MESERVE (on camera): Congress knew the cut off was looming, but left town without extending the program, because of differences between a bi-partisan Senate plan and a House Republican plan.
(voice over): Democrats have tried to cast the House Republicans as Scrooge for letting the program lapse.
SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: They ran out the clock and went home for the holidays without even allowing a simple vote.
MESERVE: An unemployment rate of 6 percent has moved the issue to the tip-top of the administration's agenda as well.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: One of my first priorities for the new Congress will be an extension of unemployment benefits for Americans who need them. MESERVE: Republicans leadership is weighing a proposal that would allow those that did not receive the entire 13 weeks of federal benefits because of the expiration to collect them. It would also provide nine weeks of benefits to the jobless in states with high unemployment rates.
The leading Democratic plan would guarantee all unemployed workers a total of 26 weeks for federal benefits.
It is impossible to say what formula will win passage, but a top House aid says it is a 100 percent certainty something will when Congress reconvenes in early January.
Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
