While much of the nation is embroiled in the national healthcare debate, unemployment rates have reached double digits, and millions of people have exhausted unemployment benefits.

Fortunately, relief is on the way.

President Barack Obama last Friday signed the Worker, Homeowners and Business Assistance Act of 2009, which changes the maximum number of weeks a person can collect Emergency Unemployment Compensation Tier 2 benefits from 13 weeks to 14 weeks, and established EUC Tier 3 benefits for those who exhaust their EUC Tier 2 claims. The law went into effect last Sunday.

According to the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission, 7,000 Oklahomans may benefit from the new law.

Unemployment claimants are first eligible for up to 26 weeks of regular state unemployment benefits from the OESC. Once these regular benefits are exhausted, claimants can receive federal extended unemployment benefits known as EUC Tier 1 for up to 20 additional weeks.

When a claimant has collected all eligible EUC Tier 1 payments, he can apply for EUC Tier 2, now for a maximum of 14 weeks. After EUC Tier 2 is exhausted, claimants can apply for EUC Tier 3 and collect extended unemployment benefits for up to 13 weeks. This means a person could collect unemployment benefits for approximately 18 months.

Local resident Lori Jumper was surprised to learn of the extension.

“You’re kidding,” she said. “I mean, I’m glad those people are going to get help, but there are jobs out there. All they have to do is go to WorkForce Oklahoma and look. My husband and I went by there just to take a peek, and there were over 300 jobs available if not here, then in Tulsa and Muskogee. I know it might be hard for some people to drive a long way, but Muskogee’s not that far.”

An additional tier of benefits was added for states where the unemployment rate averages at least 8.5 percent for a three-month period. Oklahoma’s most recently released seasonally adjusted unemployment rate – September 2009 – was 6.7 percent.

In Cherokee County, the September unemployment rate was 5.7 percent, up 2 percent from the previous year.

Some people have suggested a better plan for the unemployed may be instituting a program similar to that of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Works Projects Administration – the largest New Deal Agency, which employed millions to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads.

According to Wikipedia, almost every community in the United States has a park, bridge or school constructed by the agency, which especially benefited rural communities. Expenditures from 1936 to 1939 totaled nearly $7 billion.

Kathy Tibbits drew unemployment benefits for a short time in 1975.

“[When I drew unemployment] it was $16 per week, so I mostly ate rice and bouillon,” she said. “I was grateful to have the basic minimum, because it’s scary to lose one’s income. No one would choose to live on $16 a week just to get a free ride.”