According to an aide, the bill would reauthorize the compensation for six months retroactive to Dec. 28th, when the benefits lapsed for 1.3 million workers (more claimants have become eligible for federal benefits since then).
Federal benefits lapsed in December for 1.3 million and each week since then another 70,000 have finished their state benefits without finding work.
But he said he did not know how he would cover the $800 monthly rent after his unemployment benefits lapsed this week.
But Mr. Rockwell has been succumbing to a slow economic death, which accelerated significantly in the last month as his unemployment benefits lapsed.
I received $200 a week for the following six months and I haven't had any source of regular income since those benefits lapsed.
"Some members of Congress are just in complete denial about the severity of the economic downturn," said the Rev. Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA, which has seen demand for food and other forms of aid jump since federal benefits lapsed.
But given that so many unemployed workers will have exhausted their benefits or were never eligible for benefits in the first place, more than two out of every three unemployed workers will enter 2013 without receiving any form of unemployment insurance (for example, those whose benefits lapsed or who didn't qualify, because of self-employment or insufficient hours).
With the memory of the onslaught that occurred when unemployment benefits lapsed over the summer, the center is planning one of its most aggressive food drives ever, along with a campaign to drum up donations and volunteers, said Andrae Bailey, the executive director.
The benefits lapsed two weeks ago because Congress failed to reauthorize them on time.
Since extended benefits lapsed at the beginning of June, some 2.5 million people prematurely stopped receiving checks.
The benefits lapsed at the end of May, causing some 2.1 million so far to miss checks.
