NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – On Tuesday the US Senate voted 60 to 37 to consider extending emergency unemployment insurance to more than one million Americans for three months, a step lauded by the two congressmen representing Lake County.

US Reps. John Garamendi (D-Fairfield) and Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) also urged their colleagues in the House of Representatives to take up the legislation.

“The unemployment insurance extension is one of the only things preventing many American families from homelessness, hunger and absolute destitution. The House must act to restore these benefits and must do so immediately,” said Garamendi.

“Even though our economy continues to improve, there is still just one job for every three unemployed workers,” Thompson added. “People want to work, but they’re out of a job through no fault of their own. The House Majority should follow the Senate’s lead and end their refusal to take up legislation that boosts our economy, and helps make sure millions of American families are able to heat their homes and put food on the table as they look for a job.”

At the end of December, 1.3 million Americans – including 214,000 Californians – lost emergency unemployment insurance when the extension program expired, officials reported.

An additional 325,800 people in California will lose their coverage in the first six months of 2014 if no action is taken, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

In California, more than 12,500 people will lose their benefits each week going forward if no action is taken, Thompson reported.

Garamendi's office said 454 Lake County residents were impacted by the loss of the unemployment benefits at the end of December.

Throughout the rest of Garamendi's district, 244 people were impacted in Colusa County, 184 in Glenn, 8,599 in Sacramento, 2,640 in Solano, 687 in Sutter, 864 in Yolo and 545 in Yuba.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that a one-year extension of unemployment insurance would create 200,000 jobs because these funds are quickly spent by recipients just to get by.

Six Republicans joined a unanimous Democratic delegation in preventing a filibuster of the needed legislation in the Senate.

Speaker John Boehner and House Republican leadership, who control the House floor schedule, have thus far refused to allow the House to vote for an extension, Garamendi reported.

The federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation program took effect in 2008 when it was signed into law by President George W. Bush, and has been reauthorized several times since as the economy continues to recover from the worst downturn since the Great Depression.

Despite the economic progress made since 2008, there are still more than 1 million fewer jobs than there were before the recession began, and more than 4 million Americans have been out of work for six months or longer, the congressmen reported.

Failure to extend federal emergency unemployment insurance will cost the economy 240,000 jobs, including 46,000 jobs in California, over the next year – hurting economic growth and making it harder for the unemployed to find work, based on figures provided by Thompson.

Critics of the extension argue that it discourages workers from seeking jobs, but there’s little to no evidence to support this claim, according to Garamendi's office. In America today, there are about 2.9 unemployed workers for every job opening.

Thompson is a co-author of H.R. 3546, the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2013. H.R. 3546 would extend emergency unemployment insurance for one year and has been referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.