SC House Restores Jobless Benefits; Delays Impeachment Legislation
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Extended session
The House gave key approval to a bill that will extend unemployment benefits to South Carolinians.
Speaker Bobby Harrell gavels the House to order Tuesday.
Published: October 27, 2009
Tuesday, the South Carolina House of Representatives convened in an extended legislative session to address a fix to South Carolina’s unemployment benefits so that thousands of out-of-work South Carolinians will not lose access to these federal funds and have their unemployment benefits cut off.
House Speaker Bobby Harrell said, “The legislative fix that we made today will ensure that thousands of unemployed South Carolinians will not have their unemployment benefits prematurely cut off.”
The bill containing the legislative fix passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, passing the House 113 to 0. The legislative fix is retroactive, so both those who have recently been denied these federal funds and those in danger of soon being cut off will now be granted access to these benefits. After a procedural 3rd reading Wednesday, the amended bill will be sent to the Senate for final approval.
A special two-day session is needed to tweak a state law to restore benefits for thousands of people who are out of work.
Senators and representatives will not be paid for this special session, but it won’t be free. Taxpayers will spend about $115,000, which covers lawmakers’ mileage and meals.
Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter sponsored a bill back in April that would have made the necessary change to state law, but the bill didn’t pass. “I think what we have here is an example of what has become common practice in this General Assembly, and that is, depending on whose name is on a bill, that determines whether it gets airing or not,” she told News Channel 7.
But Speaker Harrell says the change was a small part of a much larger bill to restructure the entire Employment Security Commission. “It should’ve been done back when we were here before, but the problem was that the membership never heard from the Employment Security Commission that it’s something that needed to be done,“ he says.
The state’s unemployment rate in September rose to above 11.6%.
Also today, legislators decided to wait until January to work on any impeachment legislation. Supporters of the legislation plan on filing the plan in November. Many legislators want to wait until the Ethics Commission completes its investigation before making any decisions.
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Reader Reactions
No felix, that is my O-bum-a/America line.
How much would it have cost if they had been paid for the session? How much do they eat? How far are they driving? This problem with the unemployment should have been one of those foreseen items and wouldn’t have cost the citizens of SC a dime.
There are many who do make a career of disability, and there are some who abuse unemployment insurance as well I feel certain. Abuse is inevitable in any program. I feel there are far more abusing the ‘ disability ‘ program than there are the unemployment benefits…unemployment benefits really don’t go on forever, even with extensions but disabilty can go on and on and on. And the ‘disability ‘ program is apparently far less monitored than the unemployment insurance program. Just tonight when I was out I saw someone park in a handicapped space, get out of the car,walk around to open the trunk, LIFT a wheelchair out of the trunk, THEN GET IN IT AND GO IN THE STORE. Earlier this week I saw a man in a motorized wheelchair and when his chair stalled he was obviously able to stand up, he stradled the seat and pushed that thing along…I don’t mean to judge but these disability claims do need to be more closely monitored..even SCESC calls the unemployed receipient in FAR more than the disability agencies for reviews..which is SSA. One must be actively seeking employment to continue receiving UE benefits. We have far more entitlement programs people should be concerned over more than UE benefits..which truly is an insurance policy . Monitor ALL these programs closely and only allow the truly deserving such benefits…ONE OF MY ‘GRIPES ‘ HAS ALWAYS BEEN IF ONE CAN AFFORD TO BUY BEER AND/OR LIQUOR AND CIGARETTES THEN THEY CAN AFFORD TO BUY THEIR OWN FOOD…AND NOT RELY ON EBT. TALK ABOUT AN ABUSED PROGRAM!
The system needs to be overhauled. Too many leaches are making a carreer of unemployment benifits and disability.
I did note that on the Senate vote in Washington today, the cloture vote , 13 Republican senators voted against helping the unemployed further…2 of the ‘ nayes ‘ seemed to be from S.C.‘s Jim Demint and Lindsay Graham according to Open Congress….remember this people when you vote next time…they bailed out Wall Street but voted against taxpayers getting assistance in Washington today….Demint has said he supported another extension…I quess he REALLY didn’t, but , S.C. will get the extra weeks our lawmakers failed to recognize we needed earlier. Republicans and Demcrats alike need to be ousted at election time…I will vote Independent !
I would ask what is garbage about this but matt584 would inevitably say “if I have to explain it you wouldn’t understand”
Do our legislators have attention deficites? Can’t they go into session with one purpose without getting off on the subject of the govenor? They aren’t much better just using the money differently. The legislators are spending $115,000 to get a passage on unemployment that should have been taken care of months ago. Isn’t this abuse too? South Carolina has the highest unemployment with Union County at over 20%. Wouldn’t it have been better to leave the govenor alone and get back to “REAL” business? Our unemployed need help!!!
What a bunch of garbage.
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