WASHINGTON, DC - In an effort to help thousands of struggling Rhode Island families, U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) went to the floor of the Senate today asking Republicans to reconsider their blockade of jobless benefits for thousands of Rhode Islanders. But once again, the other side of the aisle objected to a short-term benefit of unemployment and COBRA health benefits, which are set to expire on April 5th.

"A minority of Republican Senators insists on blocking emergency unemployment benefits to hundreds of thousands of Americans who desperately need them. Partisan obstruction is engendering more uncertainty for families in a time of great uncertainty and putting more stress on state delivery systems because they have to cope with this interruption. All these things are avoidable and should have been avoided," stated Reed.

"We are still in the midst of an unemployment emergency. We routinely and repeatedly vote to aid flood-stricken areas around the country, areas that have been subject to natural disaster, and here we are with a disaster that is causing thousands of people in my home state and in many other parts of the country to be unable to provide for their families, and Republicans won't even allow us to vote on a measure that has the overwhelming support of the American people," continued Reed.

Historically, there has been strong bipartisan support for extending unemployment insurance. Earlier this month the Senate voted 79-19 for a short-term extension, but after passage of landmark health insurance reform legislation, Republicans are carrying out their obstructionist threat and will not even allow a vote on extending unemployment benefits.

At a press conference in Washington, DC today, Reed stated: "This is an emergency. The longer-term solution is not continued emergency funding. The longer-term solution is getting back to where we were, at least in 2000, where we had an unemployment rate which was around 5 percent, in my recollection, where we had a surplus, where we had a ability to invest in productivity, invest in education, even more than we're doing now.

"And in those subsequent years, the Bush administration, aided by many of the people who are protesting today, took that surplus and turned it into a huge deficit; took a situation where employment was robust and turned it into the greatest employment crisis that we've seen; and also had an economy in which it did not produce the kind of income gains that we've typically seen in every decade since World War II."

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a one-month extension of unemployment insurance last week, but Senate Republicans refused to allow a vote.

Reed spoke on the Senate floor numerous times this week decrying the obstruction, and calling for the Senate to move swiftly to extend these critical programs. Late last night, he stated:

"We have a record number of long-term unemployed people. This is not a situation as in the past where there was a temporary labor crisis. This has been going on in Rhode Island for almost two years or more, and people have reached really the end of their resources, the end of their patience, and for many the only thing that is sustaining them is the fact that they are still getting some unemployment benefits. And so we have to, I think, move very aggressively to provide that solution."

The U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives both passed legislation to extend unemployment insurance benefits and other critical programs for one year. As the differences between these bills are worked out in the coming weeks, a temporary one-month extension would have allowed unemployment insurance and COBRA health benefits to continue without needless disruption.

Rhode Island currently has a 12.7% unemployment rate, and 50,000 Rhode Islanders are receiving unemployment insurance benefits.