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Legislation to extend unemployment benefits is awaiting the governor’s signature. Governor Charlie Crist says he wants to review the plan before making a final decision on whether or not to sign off on the plan. As Whitney Ray tells us, if Crist does signs the bill, 250,000 Floridians will receive and extra 20 weeks of unemployment pay.

Until this month Rossie Foushee, his wife, and daughter were scraping by on unemployment. Rossie was just hired as a security guard. His wife is still receiving unemployment pay.

“She’s almost at the end of her term almost at the end of her money,” said Rossie.

Legislation to extend benefits for Rossie’s wife and 250,000 other Floridians is awaiting the governor’s signature. The plan would pump 418 million federal stimulus dollars into the state’s economy.

“I’ll probably sign it but I want to review it and make sure the implications of it are all good. I believe that they probably are,” said Crist.

The Agency for Workforce Innovation is preparing to send out notices and applications to people who might qualify for extended benefits.

“In anticipation of this becoming law, the agency has been working very diligent to get our computers updated to get our systems ready to go,” said AWI Spokesman Robby Cunningham.

Checks could begin going out as early as July. While Crist will have the final say so on this legislation, a bill that would have added another half a billion dollars to the unemployment fund was never taken up.

The state has until September of 2011 to claim the money. In order to grab the cash lawmakers will have to vote to allow more people on to the state’s unemployment roles.

The Agency for Workforce Innovation has already posted information about the extended benefits on its website. If the extension is approved people will be able to apply for the benefits online. To access the webpage go to www.floridajobs.org and click on the Extended Benefits Button on the right side of the screen.