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Help is likely to be on the way to thousands of unemployed West Virginians who have or soon will exhaust unemployment benefits. Gov. Manchin yesterday issued a call for a special session of the legislature to address the issue.
As mentioned here in earler posts this week, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) can provide federal funds to extend benefits up to 20 weeks if the state temporarily adjusts the measures used to calculate the unemployment rate.
According to the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, this would help over 6,000 WV workers over the next few months and bring over $33 million to the local economy.
Kudos to Gov. Manchin for acting swiftly and decisively on this issue. Thanks are also due to the four out of five members of the state's congressional delegation who supported ARRA.
Here's news coverage from the Daily Mail, which broke the story earlier this week, and from the Gazette.
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