Enact Tier 5 Extension NOW!!!

My newest letter to the Senate:

99 weeks of Unemployment is NOT enough!!!

The point of the benefits is to make is possible for the workers to pay their bills, feed their families, and keep a roof over their heads until they can work again.

My husband and I -- both separately and together -- have been writing to you and your colleagues for months.

Apparently, nobody listened.

My husband's Tier 4 unemployment completely ran out in February. Congress has passed two one-month extensions, but that doesn't help the tens of thousands who are in the same boat with us. Those extensions only apply to those still in their 1st through 4th tiers of benefits.

Congress has failed to enact a new 5th tier of benefits. So my husband and I -- along with the thousands and thousands of others who can't find jobs -- now have NO income. We are in danger of losing our Internet and phone, which will make it that much harder to look for work.  We're also in danger of losing our homes.

There are no full-time jobs here that will hire my husband at age 57 -- despite the fact that he's a Viet Nam era veteran.   He scraps metal with our neighbor -- when the landlord will loan us the truck that used to be ours (the landlord accepted it as payment for one month's rent).  Our car doesn't run -- so my husband rides his bike seven miles into town to the day-labor office.  In the last week, he has earned less than $30 because there's not enough day-labor work. 

That's barely enough to buy toilet paper, shampoo, and dish soap.  No way will it get the car fixed.

Unless a new tier 5 is enacted, we'll be evicted -- and homeless -- at the end of the month.  We have already received an eviction notice. 

I'm disabled and can't work -- yet I'm my third go round of being denied SSD benefits.  I also have a compromised immune system and suffer from recurring abcesses.  Losing our home and moving to a tent is liable to kill me.

Enact a Tier 5 Unemployment now!!!  If you don't... My blood will be on your hands.