Va. congressmen support jobless benefits extension

All three of Culpeper’s federal legislators are supporting extended benefits for jobless workers nationwide.

Democratic Sens. Mark Warner and Jim Webb voted in favor of the 14-week extension Wednesday, and Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Richmond, subsequently endorsed the measure in a house vote Thursday.

President Barack Obama is expected to sign it into law Friday, according to the Associated Press. The White House said the legislation builds on its efforts for job creation.

A release from Webb’s office said the extended benefits would provide relief for nearly 2 million Americans, including 13,000 in Virginia who would have otherwise exhausted their unemployment assistance by the end of the year.

Webb described the extension as “absolutely necessary,” mentioning recent news that International Paper would shutter its plant in Franklin as evidence that Virginia “faces the same economic changes as other large industrial states.”

The $24 billion package passed this week by Congress also extends the $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers through June and contains tax credits aimed at struggling businesses.

Last week, Cantor, a leading voice for the GOP, blasted Barack Obama and his administration for claiming its stimulus created or saved at least 1 million jobs.

“Americans, particularly those with friends and family out of work, know that the … claims of stimulus success ‘saved’ or created are not serious,” Cantor said. “With unemployment approaching 10 percent this holiday season and millions of jobs lost since the stimulus became law, we must focus on what is most important and prioritize the way that Washington spends.”

He said the Republican Economics Solutions Group was working to develop “serious solutions that will put Americans back to work.”