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Source: The Press-Enterprise, Riverside, Calif.迷你倉Jan. 03--The debate on whether the federal government should continue to fund unemployment benefits for more than 1 million people will pick up again next week when Congress reconvenes.Extended benefits for about 1.3 million people, including more than 27,000 in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, ended on Saturday, Dec. 28 when funding for the program expired. Democrats in Washington, D.C., have vowed to make some sort of lifeline for the unemployed one of the new year's priorities.Unemployment recipients in California receive benefits for 26 weeks, but since the start of the recession, thousands had been receiving additional payments that had been keeping the emergency income flowing for almost 18 months. According to state data, 13,925 people in Riverside County and 13,218 in San Bernardino County stopped receiving this money last week.Funding for the emergency benefits was not included when Congress passed a budget during the last days of 2013. The Senate is expected to take up the measure again when it reconvenes next week."It's sort of the first item on their calendar and we're very hopeful it will pass," said Josh Drobnyk, a spokesman for Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., the ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee. "But the key is enough Republican support."Drobnyk said there was some urgency in coming up with a solution because the number of people in the country who fall off the state benefit roles grow by an estimated 72,000 every week on the average. That includes about 12,500 people in California, he said.Brett Morrow, spokesman for Rep. Mark Takano, D-Riverside, said a short-term continuing resolution could restore the benefits. The matter could bmini storage taken up long-term at another time.The subject has been part of the political debate, and last week Americans United for Change, a left-leaning advocacy group, released a poll it commissioned that asked residents of five congressional districts represented by Republicans whether they favored extending the benefits. That group included Rep. Gary Miller, R-Rancho Cucamonga.The poll found that 54 percent of Republicans in Miller's district supported continuing the emergency benefits and 41 percent favored discontinuing them. Among Democrats, 84 percent favor funding the benefits and 12 percent do not, and almost 40 percent of the voters who identify themselves as independents say this issue could sway their vote.Miller's district includes Redlands and Rancho Cucamonga, two cities with some of the lowest unemployment levels in the Inland region. But he also represents San Bernardino and Colton, where the November jobless rates, at 12.4 percent and 11.8 percent, respectively, are well above the overall 9.4 percent reported for the two Inland counties as a whole.Michael McAdams, a spokesman for Miller, did not comment directly on the results of the poll but said in an email that Miller understands this is an important issue."He is currently evaluating the response from his constituents and the needs of his district with regard to any legislation coming up in the beginning of 2014," McAdams wrote. "He will consider any congressional action that would assist those affected."Follow Jack Katzanek on Twitter: @JackKatzanek and check his blog on pe.com/businessCopyright: ___ (c)2014 The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, Calif.) Visit The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, Calif.) at .PE.com Distributed by MCT Information Servicesself storage