WASHINGTON — Add Sen. Amy Klobuchar to the list of Senate Democrats waging a public campaign to reinstate an emergency unemployment insurance program that expired Dec. 28.

With an initial Senate vote on extending the program set for as early as Monday afternoon, Klobuchar’s Joint Economic Committee released a report highlighting what Democrats consider the “economic case for continuing” the program, which provides federal aid to would-be workers who have been unemployed long enough to tap out their state unemployment benefits.

According to the report:

• The Congressional Budget Office says extending the program would boost the GDP by .2 percent and reduce unemployment by 200,000 in 2013;
• The current 2.6 percent long-term unemployment rate (for those unemployed for 26 weeks or more) is double what it’s been each of the last two times lawmakers let unemployment insurance end, in March 2004 and April 1994;
• More than 23.9 million people have used the program since it was instituted in 2008, though it’s impacted 45 million people living with those beneficiaries in that time;
• When the program expired, 1.3 million workers lost benefits, and that number could rise to 4.9 million this year as unemployed workers become ineligible for their state coverage.

Almost 398,000 Minnesotans have used the program since 2008, according to the report, and the state’s long-term unemployment rate sits at 1.4 percent. State officials said 8,500 workers lost their benefits when the program expired in December, and 65,000 could miss out of the program isn’t extended through 2014.

“Rather than removing the safety net Americans rely on, we should be focused on policies that help people get back to work, including extending this critical assistance that allows them to pay their rent and fill their gas tanks while they’re searching for jobs,” Klobuchar said in a statement. Her report can be found here. 

Democrats have insisted Congress reinstate the unemployment insurance program. Before lawmakers left on a winter recess, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid promised to bring the program to the floor when they returned to work this week, and lawmakers have made the rounds through the media to make their case. The Obama administration has dispatched Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez to vouch for the program. With Klobuchar’s report, both the White House and congressional Democrats have released data to back the program up.

Republicans from House Speaker John Boehner on down have said they wouldn’t oppose extending the aid so if there’s a way to pay for it. The problem is, the bill the Senate is voting on Monday doesn’t do that — it extends the program through March at a cost of $6.5 billion, making any potential vote this afternoon unlikely to succeed, given the need for Republican support to break a filibuster. Even if the Senate were to somehow pass the bill, senior House Republicans have said the bill would face a “tough sell” in the Republican-controlled House.

Devin Henry can be reached at dhenry@minnpost.com. Follow him on Twitter: @dhenry