Unemployment across the country is hovering around 10 percent, with low-income communities, youth, single mother households, and communities of color facing disproportionate rates of joblessness. Congress has already, in the name of deficit-reduction, significantly scaled back the help for the jobless and FMAP assistance, cutting unemployment benefits by $25 a week and removing COBRA health benefits from the bill.

Write your senators and tell them to support an extension of unemployment insurance, Medicaid assistance and TANF Emergency fund. These measures will increase the short-term deficit by less than 1 percent and actually put us on stronger economic footing in the long term by contributing to economic recovery and creating jobs.

June 30th 2010 marks the 29th day that millions of unemployed workers have been left without jobless benefits as Congress continues to stall on passage of the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act (HR4213). The bill failed a third time just last week, unable to get the 60 votes necessary to get through the Senate.

Write your senators today and urge them to act swiftly to extend unemployment insurance and other job-creation measures.

Refundable tax credits like the EITC and CTC help ensure that work pays more than welfare, but they are at risk of losing much of their effectiveness. If Congress does not extend the improvements to the programs, a parent who works full time in a minimum wage position will have his or her annual credit reduced from $1,800 to $320 at the end of 2010. This would have a devastating effect on children in low-income families.

Research conducted by the Tax Policy Center reveals that 8 million children would lose the tax credit entirely if Congress allows the current Child Tax Credit improvements to expire, and an additional 10 million children would lose some of the credit. This change would lead as many as 600,000 more children to become poor and 4 million already poor children to fall deeper into poverty, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

We must stand up to preserve the 2009 reforms to the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit. But there is room for additional federal leadership, as well. If the current improvement expires, a family’s first $13,000 in wages will not count toward calculating the Child Tax Credit. Congress should change the law so that all earnings count in calculating the credit. A family with two children will receive $2,000 if full-time, year-round minimum wage earnings are all counted; but the same family will receive only $312 if the improvements expire.

The Local Jobs for America Act (H.R. 4812), sponsored by Rep. George Miller (D-CA) and 150 other members of Congress, will create or save more than 1 million public and private sector jobs in local communities while restoring services our communities need badly.

Urge your representative to co-sponsor the Local Jobs for America Act, or thank them if they are already a co-sponsor. Your representative needs to hear that quick passage of the Local Jobs for America Act is imperative in putting Americans back to work, meeting pressing needs in our communities, and promoting economic recovery throughout the nation as a whole. 

Future jobs and recovery legislation will be put at risk if Congress passes an appropriations spending limit below what the president has proposed. And it will become much more difficult to advance any policies for shared recovery without a budget resolution in place this year.

Tell your members of Congress to pass a budget that reflects the principles of shared economic recovery.

Our country cannot afford the job loss that will come from inaction. Every dollar of unemployment insurance benefits creates $1.90 of stimulus in the community. Our country will lose another 800,000 jobs if the Senate’s inaction cuts off benefits.

Demand that the Senate vote immediately to save jobs by extending UI benefits and COBRA subsidies through the end of 2010 and by providing aid to state and local governments.

The Senate is considering legislation to spur job creation, but it isn’t clear if the bill will include policies to create jobs for the communities that have been hit the hardest in this recession.  There are three provisions that can create or save over 2 million jobs in low-income and minority communities while helping the economy overall and lifting up all Americans.

Call your senator today at (202) 224-3121 and ask them to support a jobs package that includes:

• extension of unemployment benefits and the COBRA health insurance subsidy through the end of 2010 by February 19.
• investment in direct job creation that addresses long-neglected needs in communities.
• aid to states and localities to prevent further job losses and service cuts.

Call Congress and urge your representative to support the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act (H.R. 1106), which would assist in stabilizing our economy by letting homeowners modify their mortgages in bankruptcy court and reduce foreclosures.

The 650,000 job difference: Although the two bills cost about the same (more than $800 billion each), the House bill saves/creates hundreds of thousands more jobs because it provides more aid to states to prevent education and other important services from being cut. The House bill also creates jobs by investing more to renovate low-income housing and to support community services including Head Start. Most important, the House bill also provides more help to millions more low-income families through the Child Tax Credit. The Senate bill does less in these areas and spends more on tax breaks that mostly benefit those with high incomes.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes many initiatives that help people in poverty, including home weatherization funds, UIMA, and child care. This essential legislation also includes a much needed expansion of the Child Tax Credit. Under current law, the Child Tax Credit gives up to $1,000 per child to households with kids—but it currently leaves out millions of children in the lowest income families. We need your help to increase support to these children.

Together, we call on the Senate to support the recovery package today, with the House position on the Child Tax Credit. If it does, children, families, and working Americans across the country will benefit from essential programs that are among the most effective forms of stimulus.