If this is true, and the Democrats are successful, this will be very good news:

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer also had some new news on extended unemployment benefits. President Obama signed the bill late Thursday night.

It provides up to 99 weeks of support for people who have exhausted their state benefits. Schumer says there's more legislation in the works to extend past the 99 weeks.

“There are a number of people who have maxed out, they've been looking and looking for work but haven't found it, and there is a separate act that would extend those benefits to them,. Extending this was really important. There are some people who go beyond the 99 weeks and we're gonna try to do that next,” he said.

The senator did not give any timeline for the act.

From Michael Thornton of the Rochester Examiner:

Unemployment and 99er advocate Rob C has been in contact with various congressional representatives and his contact with Senator Schumer is as follows:

Senator Chuck Schumer – After emailing our request on 7/20 to Chief of Staff Mike Lynch I was referred to staffer who I will not name at his request, after leaving messages on 7/21, 7/22 and calling on 7/23 I finally spoke with that staffer. We had a heated discussion and debate on the matter, and I simply asked him to step up or not. Alex Levy advised that if we got Republican Senator to sign onto the bill that Senator Schumer would write it. I confirmed this with him again, and asked if we had a gentlemen’s agreement on this – he said “yes”. So the fight is on now to find that Republican Senator. Oddly enough a few hours after the call from our community, Senator Schumer went on camera and announced he is working on something.

Contact Senator Schumer and ask him to be ready to write benefit exhaustee legislation immediately:

http://schumer.senate.gov/new_website/contact.cfm

As a result of Senator Schumer's need for Republican support, it’s vital that Republicans be contacted to support 99er – benefit exhaustee legislation. Who are those Republicans that may be swayed to support the millions who are exhausting benefits? The list is small, but here are a few suggestions:

Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins,Scott Brown and Lindsay Graham.

These are the few moderate Republicans from states with higher unemployment. Call, fax and email them as often as you can.