Minnesotans may miss out on extended jobless benefits

WASHINGTON - Leah Iversen is about to lose one of the biggest lifelines she has had in this downtrodden economy.

Once a library staffer at Macalester College, the 38-year-old St. Paul resident is now eight weeks away from exhausting all of her unemployment benefits. After that, she and her husband, who works at the University of Minnesota, will be forced to give up their rented apartment and move in with his parents.

If that happens, she will be among the 1,000 Minnesotans a week who reach the end of their unemployment benefits. If she lived in about 30 other states, her benefits would be extended 13 weeks by legislation that passed the U.S. House this week and awaits Senate action. But Minnesota's jobless rate, unless it climbs in the coming weeks, falls just below the bill's threshold.

"Every day that I go out and apply for more jobs I have hopes that something will pan out," Iversen said. She has received unemployment benefits for nearly 18 months and applies for about 15 jobs a day. "Just having a few more weeks of leeway for something to pan out would be really helpful," she said.

Minnesota Democrats Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken are working with Senate colleagues to broaden the extension, which currently applies only to states with an unemployment rate of 8.5 percent or higher. Minnesota is at 8 percent.

Without a change, more than 13,000 Minnesotans will exhaust their benefits by the end of December, according to the National Employment Law Project.

Franken said Friday that he is working on a bill with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., to extend benefits in all states, though the length of an extension has not been set. Franken made a plea for an all-state extension on Thursday in a letter to Baucus, whose committee has jurisdiction over the issue.

Franken noted that unemployment benefits have a high return on investment because they are spent quickly in the local economy. He said those crafting the bill are identifying offsets so that the legislation does not add to the deficit.

Klobuchar said Friday that she is working with the Finance Committee and colleagues from Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware and Texas -- all states with between 8 and 8.5 percent unemployment -- to extend benefits in areas just on the cusp of the cutoff. That could be done by a Senate amendment to the House bill or a standalone bill, Klobuchar said. An aide said she would also be open to an all-state extension.

"I really do view this as our making sure that we're fair to some of these states that are still having difficulty," Klobuchar said. "It may not be as bad as some of the other states, but we still have a significant number of people who are unemployed."

John Schadl, a spokesman for Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., said that leaders in the House indicated to their staff that they are planning to move another extension bill before the end of the year.

"There are many, many areas of the state that are looking at double-digit unemployment," Schadl said. "So this is something that we really do need in Minnesota."

Several initiatives at the state and federal level already have extended benefits several times. They now last for up to 79 weeks in Minnesota.

For people such Iversen, who continue to scramble for any job they can get, however, it still isn't enough.