Rep. Camp's Unemployment Bill Would Leave Michigan Dead Last in Aid to Unemployed

Michigan's Representative Dave Camp (R-Midland), who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, introduced legislation on Friday that would impose severe cuts in the number of weeks of federal unemployment insurance available to out-of-work Americans in Michigan and around the nation, according to an analysis released today by theNational Employment Law Project. Camp's plan hits the unemployed in his home state especially hard. When combined with state cuts enacted by Michigan's governor and legislature last spring, Camp's proposal would leave Michigan, which faces an unemployment rate of 10.6 percent--fourth-highest in the nation--tied with low-unemployment states in offering the fewest weeks of unemployment insurance in the nation, at 46 weeks by the end of January 2012. "This proposal is reckless and irresponsible," said Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project. "It dismantles the one program Americans can turn to when they are laid off through no fault of their own. We are still very much in the thick of a jobs crisis. To jobseekers and states hit hard by long-term unemployment, this proposal offers a cold and cynical shrug. Anyone serious about helping workers and businesses get going again needs to know that this is neither a serious nor acceptable way forward."

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