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Emily Martin, Vice President and General Counsel

Emily Martin

Emily Martin is Vice President and General Counsel at the National Women's Law Center, where she undertakes cross-cutting projects addressing women's health, economic security, and education and employment opportunities. She also provides in-house legal advice and representation to the Center. Prior to joining the Center, Ms. Martin served as Deputy Director of the Women's Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, where she spearheaded litigation, policy, and public education initiatives to advance the rights of women and girls, with a particular emphasis on the needs of low-income women and women of color. She also served as a law clerk for Senior Judge Wilfred Feinberg of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Judge T.S. Ellis, III, of the Eastern District of Virginia and previously worked for the Center as a recipient of the Georgetown Women's Law and Public Policy Fellowship. She has served as Vice President and President of the Fair Housing Justice Center, a non-profit organization in New York City. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia and Yale Law School.

My Take

Tell the Senate to Support Job Creation for Struggling Parents Today

Posted by Emily Martin, Vice President and General Counsel | Posted on: March 04, 2010 at 08:54 pm

by Emily J. Martin, Vice President, 
National Women's Law Center

Last month, the New York Times told the story of Roshonda Bolton, a woman in Mississippi who lost her job in August when the factory where she had worked for 16 years shut down. After months in which she "applied for everything, found nothing," Ms. Bolton was finally hired to work at a napkin factory in January, through a program in which the state of Mississippi pays part of the wages for low-income workers, allowing employers to create jobs they otherwise would not be able to afford to add. Similarly, in Tennessee, as we previously noted, TANF emergency funds were used to create jobs and reduce unemployment rates in a particularly hard-hit area of the state.

These programs were funded through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) emergency fund, which was created in last year’s stimulus package to assist states in addressing increased poverty among families with children through cash welfare benefits, short-term emergency assistance (like one-time payments to avoid eviction), and subsidized jobs. 

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Saving Unemployment Benefits – There’s No Time to Waste

Posted by Emily Martin, Vice President and General Counsel | Posted on: March 02, 2010 at 07:52 pm

by Emily J. Martin, Vice President, 
National Women's Law Center

Yesterday, Senators Baucus and Reid introduced a new bill that would provide crucial assistance to women and families who are struggling to make ends meet in the face of continuing high unemployment rates. 

First, it would provide extended and enhanced unemployment benefits through the end of 2010. The bill would also provide retroactive unemployment insurance benefits for the hundreds of thousands of who lost this lifeline as of Sunday as a result of Senator Bunning’s continued objections to an emergency extension

Second, it would provide COBRA subsidies to individuals who have lost their jobs through the end of 2010, helping families keep their health insurance in the face of unemployment. Again, this assistance would be retroactive, and would reimburse those individuals who lost these subsidies as of Sunday as a result of Senator Bunning’s continued objections.  

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