Congress resumed a debate about unemployment benefits this week, after lawmakers failed to vote on a bill in May that would reauthorize an extension. In the meantime 57,000 unemployed Tennesseans have been waiting to see if their benefits will return.
Sheila Scott’s husband lost his job more than a year ago and was collecting benefits until the end of May, when the extension program ended. Scott lost her own job at Opryland after May’s flood and says it’s a daily reminder of the delay in Congress.
“I think they should be getting up off their can and doing something about it, because it’s not only me that’s hurting, it’s other people that’s hurting, and I know that they could do something about it if they really wanted to.”
The program began in 2008 giving jobless citizens nearly two years of unemployment assistance. The bill is a motion to simply continue the extension. People who have already reached the 99-week limit will not be eligible for additional benefits.
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