Jobless Aid Bill Passed Today - Beginning of the End of 99 Weeks (20 weeks cut)!

The two-month package preserves a $1,500 payroll tax cut for the middle class and extends unemployment benefits that were set to expire at the end of the year, preventing an abrupt cutoff for nearly 2 million long-term jobless in January alone. The bill also extends the "doc fix," a stopgap that prevents Medicare reimbursement rates for doctors from being automatically slashed.

But the bill also marks the beginning of the end for a maximum limit of 99 weeks of unemployment insurance. Although the deal reauthorizes federal unemployment programs, it does not make a change needed to prevent the loss of 20 weeks of benefits in most states over the course of 2012. The reduction in benefits represents Democrats' quiet embrace of part of the GOP's proposed reforms to the unemployment insurance system.

"We couldn't get it done otherwise," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said on the matter during a press conference.

Marian wrote:The EDD's website in CA states that we are still given the full 99 weeks. The Fed-Ed tier is included and the filing deadline for this is on or before March 4, 2012...

The following is straight from the EDD's website~

"It also extends the filing and payment dates for those who are currently collecting benefits on the separate extension known as the FED-ED here in California. The maximum total weeks of benefits claimants may qualify for remains up to 99 weeks."