New Oregon County-By-County Breakdown Shows the Harm of Not Extending Unemployment Insurance

WASHINGTON – Today, Representatives Earl Blumenauer (OR-03), Peter DeFazio (OR-04), and Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01) released a new county-by-county breakdown of the number of people in Oregon who would immediately lose all of their unemployment insurance on Dec. 28 if Congress fails to extend the federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation program. Republicans last week blocked an effort by House Democrats to extend the program into 2014.

Overall, about 20,000 people in Oregon are set to lose their federal extended unemployment insurance coverage immediately on Dec. 28. While around 2,200 of these individuals are likely to be eligible for state benefits based on their work history, up to an additional 29,000 people in Oregon could lose their coverage in the first six months of 2014 if Republicans continue to block an extension of the program.

“This is a gut punch to out-of-work Oregonians right in the middle of the holiday season,” said Blumenauer. “Families in Multnomah and Clackamas Counties in my district will be the first and third hardest hit, respectively, by this failure to extend unemployment insurance. It’s shameful that House Republicans always seem to be able to find time to cut food aid for hungry families or extend giveaways to large agribusiness, but can’t find time to help out families when they need it most.”

“As the numbers show, this economic downturn has been especially cruel to many of our neighbors,” said DeFazio. “The bottom line: jobs are still scarce across the state. While we work on long-term plans to create good-paying jobs in the U.S., it is unacceptable for Republicans to turn their backs on our most vulnerable citizens, all while making sure corporate tax loopholes are left intact.”

“It is unconscionable that House leadership did not let us vote on legislation to extend unemployment benefits before adjourning for the year,” said Bonamici. “Even though the Speaker did not keep the House in session to pass an extension, as many of my colleagues and I requested, I will continue to urge him to take this up immediately upon our return in January. I hope we can extend these benefits and provide certainty to those individuals and families struggling to make ends meet.”

Federal extended unemployment insurance took effect in 2008 and has been reauthorized several times since as Americans continue to recover from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Despite the real progress the economy has made since its near collapse in 2008, there are still 1.3 million fewer jobs than there were before the recession began and long-term unemployment as a percentage of the unemployed is 37 percent, near historic highs.

Failure to extend federal unemployment insurance would also hurt job growth throughout the nation, costing the economy 240,000 jobs, according to the White House Council of Economic Advisers. The CEA estimates that in Oregon alone, failing to extend the program will cost 3,829 jobs. The county-by-county breakdown, based on the total number of people in Oregon currently receiving federal unemployment insurance, is below. The information was provided by the Oregon Employment Department.

COUNTY # of People Losing Coverage Dec. 28
BAKER COUNTY 64
BENTON COUNTY 204
CLACKAMAS COUNTY 1,705
CLATSOP COUNTY 146
COLUMBIA COUNTY 284
COOS COUNTY 369
CROOK COUNTY 147
CURRY COUNTY 98
DESCHUTES COUNTY 863
DOUGLAS COUNTY 569
GILLIAM COUNTY 6
GRANT COUNTY 35
HARNEY COUNTY 40
HOOD RIVER COUNTY 83
JACKSON COUNTY 1,080
JEFFERSON COUNTY 65
JOSEPHINE COUNTY 490
KLAMATH COUNTY 390
LAKE COUNTY 36
LANE COUNTY 1,604
LINCOLN COUNTY 178
LINN COUNTY 659
MALHEUR COUNTY 69
MARION COUNTY 1,490
MORROW COUNTY 29
MULTNOMAH COUNTY 3,637
OUT OF STATE(WA, ID, & CA) 826
POLK COUNTY 318
SHERMAN COUNTY 5
TILLAMOOK COUNTY 114
UMATILLA COUNTY 363
UNION COUNTY 93
WALLOWA COUNTY 25
WASCO COUNTY 121
WASHINGTON COUNTY 2,358
WHEELER COUNTY 1
YAMHILL COUNTY 482
OUT OF STATE (other states) 1,021
Total 20,067

The above text was released from Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici’s Official Office on 12/19/2013