Senate OKs bill to extend checks for unemployment

Apr 30, 2009 1 min read

TALLAHASSEE (AP) – As many as 250,000 out-of-work Floridians will get up to 20 weeks of extra unemployment benefits under legislation sent Wednesday to Gov. Charlie Crist who is expected to sign it.

The Senate and then the House unanimously passed a bill that would draw down more than $400 million in federal stimulus aid intended for states with high unemployment rates, but lawmakers turned down another $444 million.

The legislation (SB 810) would cover workers whose unemployment benefits, now capped at a total of 59 weeks, were about to expire or would expire in the next few months.

“This legislation will provide critically needed federal funds to hundreds of thousands of Floridians who are exhausting their unemployment benefits,” said Cynthia Lorenzo, the interim director of the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation.

But the Republican-controlled Legislature refused to make other changes to the state’s jobless rules in order to draw the additional $444 million in stimulus.