ALBANY (AP) -- Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signed into law an extension of federally funded unemployment benefits through 2011.
Cuomo says the state wouldn't be able to continue to pay a total of 93 weeks of benefits without the legislation and would have forfeited $620 million in federal payments to the unemployed. That would have affected about 166,000 New Yorkers.
New York state has participated in a two-year federally funded unemployment insurance program since 2009. Congress extended the federal program by an additional year in December. The legislation signed by Cuomo amends New York state law to allow the state to qualify for the additional third year of the program.
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