GOP Leaders Look to Discuss ‘Alternatives’ to Tier 5 Unemployment Extension

For quite some time, many of the nation’s 99ers have been barely scraping by on some combination of under-the-table employment, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Plan (SNAP) funds. Like unemployment money, those programs are jointly administered — which means costs are shared — between the State and Federal governments. And as we’ve all been told again and again, State governments are going broke.

But wait, there’s hope! GOP leaders have agreed to talk to our champions in the House, Representatives Barbara Scott (D, CA) and Bobby Lee (D, VA). The letter that the Reps sent received an answer on Wednesday in the form of a “sure, OK” from the GOP leadership.