Brooklyn, N.Y. –Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke has asked for a vote to extend unemployment insurance based on a report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities which determined that 200,000 veterans of the armed forces have already lost benefits this year.
 
The request was submitted to Speaker of the House John Boehner in a letter signed by one-hundred sixty-one members of Congress. Since December 28, 2013, when the extension of unemployment benefits expired, more than two million Americans have lost access to unemployment insurance, and another 72,000 lose their benefits every week.
 
“The failure to extend unemployment benefits has been inexcusable. The women and men of our armed forces who sacrificed for us, their fellow citizens, and for their nation deserve better from their representatives in Washington, D.C.,” said Congresswoman Clarke. “The continued refusal of Republican leaders to schedule a vote on this matter demonstrates their intention to avoid the issue. The two million families whose benefits have expired cannot afford to have the House of Representatives continue to avoid this issue. The soldiers who returned from Iraq and Afghanistan and cannot find jobs cannot avoid this issue and their obligations to their families. We have a responsibility to act.”

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.