More than 30,000 Iowans are at risk of losing their unemployment benefits early next year unless Congress intervenes, according to a new study by the National Employment Law Project.

The study found that 10,716 Iowans will exhaust their state unemployment benefits in the first quarter of 2010. Another 19,561 who have received one of three levels of federal extensions will not be allowed to continue in the program.

Mike Lillis, who covers congress for The Washington Independent, reported Tuesday that by March around 3.2 million people across the nation could lose unemployment benefits if Congress doesn’t renew the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act this month. Lawmakers passed an extension of emergency jobless benefits last month but did not solve the underlying problem.

Hardest hit would be California, where the filing deadline threatens to drop nearly 589,000 beneficiaries in the first three months of next year, according to the analysis, conducted by the National Employment Law Project (NELP), an advocacy group. Other states in line to suffer the greatest drop-offs are Florida (314,000), New York (239,000), Texas (196,000), Illinois (193,000) and Michigan (183,000). Ten states are facing dropped enrollment topping 100,000 beneficiaries, NELP found.

The deadline threatens to shift much higher costs onto states, squeezing budgets at the same time that states are least able to shoulder the addition burden. The NELP analysis is designed to hike the pressure on Congress to offer additional federal help.

In October, Iowa Workforce Development reported around 113,000 Iowans were unemployed.