Dent Presents Plan to Extend Unemployment Benefits

U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent, R-15th, has joined a fellow lawmaker in introducing a plan to extend unemployment benefits for a year and create jobs, according to a prepared release.

The legislation, titled the GROWTH (Generating Real Opportunities for Workers and Transitional Help) Act, also would limit how long a person is eligible for benefits.  

Mark Meadows, R-North Carolina, joined Dent in introducing the legislation in the House.

According to the release, the legislation also would:

—Approved construction of the Keystone Pipeline, which Dent said could create 42,000 jobs annually over two years;

—Repeal the Medical Device Tax, a provision in the Affordable Care Act. 

—Change an Obamacare provision that sets the work week at 30 hours, to 40 hours. Dent said that would protect workers from having their hours cut or jobs eliminated. 

According to Politico, the Dent-Meadows legislation would pay for the extensions by prohibiting people from collecting unemployment and disability payments at the same time and changing the rules on the child tax credit by requiring that children claimed for a credit have a Social Security number.

“This is a common sense proposal that continues to provide assistance to those who have lost their jobs and are looking for work while at the same time addressing the underlying problem of unacceptably high unemployment and slow economic growth,“ Dent said in the release.