Advocates for Iowa’s jobless workers are hoping congress will approve another extension of unemployment benefits. Many of the 110,000 thousand Iowans who’re out of work have already exhausted their 73 weeks of unemployment benefits. Iowa Workforce Development spokesperson Kerrie Koonce says others are still eligible for help, but need the deadline extended.

“We’re hoping they will move this process through very quickly and get this additional extension passed. We would like to see them extend this for several months at a time, or possibly through the end of 2010,” Koonce says. Koonce says a 30 day extension of benefits is more likely.

“And if that’s the case we’ll be back in the same boat in 30 days with people concerned that their benefits are going to expire,” Koonce says. Roughly 26-hundred Iowans will be able to get back on unemployment if congress acts. Without an extension,an additional one to two thousand Iowans per week will drop off the unemployment rolls.

Koonce predicts lawmakers may approve the extension as early as today, and the president may sign it by week’s end.