There is much speculation and debate in and around Washington and in the financial community that our Great Recession of 2009 is turning around, but normal working people and the unemployed don’t seem to see an end to this crisis any time soon.

There has been a bill presented to Washington that would allow an extra 13 weeks of extended benefits to those who are expecting their benefits to expire by the end of September. This bill would apply to about 300,000 people that are living in states with an unemployment rate of at least 8.5 percent.

The 13-week extension would supplement the 26 weeks of benefits most states offer and the federally funded extensions of up to 53 weeks that Congress approved in legislation last year and in the stimulus bill enacted last February.

Some folks who are opposed to the idea of unemployment insurance argue that extending benefits at a time when the economy is showing signs of recovery could be counterproductive to looking for work.

For those of us who have become unemployed, some 5 million people at the present time, many of whom have been on the unemployment list and have been without a job for six months or more, have discovered in our searching for work, that there is not a lot of that available. These are the people who know how important these jobless benefits have become.

It is likely that the unemployment exhaustion rate will continue to increase in coming months as the unemployment rate continues to rise. It is expected that Congress will have to extend jobless benefits through 2011 in order to combat this crisis.

The good news is that this bill is expected to pass and would include the unemployed in Alabama, Arizona, California, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Washington, Wisconsin and West Virginia.

Other states could qualify for more benefits if their unemployment rates increase to an 8.5 percent rate or higher.

Good news for a lot of people struggling to survive this weak economy.