Brooklyn, N.Y. – Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke today reaffirmed her commitment to extending unemployment benefits for the millions of Americans who cannot find jobs.

On December 28, 2013, benefits expired for 1.3 million Americans. By July 1, 2014, benefits will expire for another 1.9 million people. Economists with the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office have predicted that the failure to extend unemployment benefits will undermine the recovery of our economy.”

“At the end of last month, members of Congress returned home without even a vote on extending unemployment benefits,” said Congresswoman Clarke. “I disagreed. At the time, I urged my colleagues to remember that we have a shared responsibility to support our fellow men and women, both as a matter of basic morality and for practical reasons.”

Congresswoman Clarke continued: “We need to remember that unemployment benefits involve everyone. Our economy cannot function properly – our small businesses cannot succeed – when millions of our neighbors lack any income to spend of the basic necessities. In addition, the end of unemployment benefits will result in an increase in demand for SNAP – at a time when the Republicans are trying to cut SNAP funding by forty billion dollars. This is unfair, it makes no sense, and it does not help Americans get back on their feet.”

U.S. Representative Yvette D. Clarke is a member of the House Committee on Small Business, Ethics, and Homeland Security, where she is the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies. She represents many neighborhoods in central and southern Brooklyn, NY which include Brownsville, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Flatbush, Gerritsen Beach, Madison, Midwood, parts of Park Slope and Flatlands, Prospect Heights, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Sheepshead Bay, and Windsor Terrace.