Congress Passes Legislation To Assist Jobless, Despite Some Republican Opposition

The U.S. Senate passed and sent to President Barack Obama a bill to reinstate unemployment benefits for thousands after Republican Senator Jim Bunning ended his effort to block the measure because it added to the deficit.

The chamber voted 78 to 19 last night to approve the bill, which the House passed last week. All 19 Senate votes against the measure were cast by Republicans.

The bill will become law with Obama’s signature.

It would extend benefits for the jobless one month, including subsidies to help the unemployed buy health insurance, as well as postpone cuts in Medicare reimbursements in doctors. It would also release highway money, the delay of which forced the Transportation Department to furlough 2,000 employees.

The bill is designed to buy lawmakers time while they debate longer-term extensions of the programs.

Bunning relented in blocking the measure after coming under a drumbeat of criticism from Democrats as well as some Republicans who believed his efforts had become a political liability for their party.

Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, said yesterday extension of the jobless benefits was “so important to senators on both sides of the aisle,” and that “numerous members of the Republican caucus” opposed Bunning’s stalling tactics.

“Today we have a clear-cut example to show the American people just what’s wrong with Washington, D.C.,” Senator Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, said yesterday in pressing her party’s case against Bunning’s actions.

Obama ‘Grateful’

Obama, in a statement after last night’s vote, said he was “grateful to the members of the Senate on both sides of the aisle who worked to end this roadblock to relief for America’s working families.”

Bunning, who decided against seeking re-election this year, had been holding up a vote since Feb. 25 because the bill’s $10 billion cost would be added to the government’s $1.6 trillion deficit. Unemployment benefits for many expired Feb. 28 and the Labor Department said 400,000 could see aid cut within two weeks if Congress didn’t act. Bunning accused Democrats of ignoring their recently enacted anti-deficit budget rules known as pay-go.

“We must get our debt problem under control and there is no better time than now,” Bunning said on the Senate floor before last night’s vote. “That is why I have been down here demanding that this bill be paid for.”

Bunning agreed to allow the vote so long as he was promised separate consideration of his amendment to offset the cost of the legislation by closing a tax break for paper companies. His amendment was defeated on a procedural vote amid complaints by Democrats that its passage would force the House to again approve the legislation, which would further delay the extension of unemployment benefits and the other provisions.

Source

Bunning Tries To Explain Why He Chooses Unemployment Extensions To Hold Up And Then Rants On How He Now Supports PAYGO?

Official C-Span Video, Republican Sen Jim Bunning, Kentucky, on the Senate floor with a sudden flip-flop support of PAYGO and choosing the unemployed as his divine opportunity to protest government spending.

Do not watch this video unless you can stomach the hypocrisy of this Senator whose actions are holding up extensions. He speaks of a "revolution" in this video. Apparently there is a "revolution" under-way to deny assistance to the jobless.

Mr. Bunning, retire now.



Harry Reid sets the record straight toward the end of the video and tries again to muster unanimous consent to move forward. Sen Reid also lays out his plan to get this assistance to the jobless as soon as possible. The procedure of cloture, once again, will be necessary to move forward.

Sen. Jon Kyl Says Congress Will Pass Extended Jobless Benefits

Congress will pass legislation aimed at keeping certain jobless benefits, highway and transit money and other government programs funded, Sen. Jon Kyl, the Senate's No. 2 Republican, said Sunday.

But the approval was highly unlikely to come before this morning. Several programs were to expire at midnight Sunday, and Congress has failed to extend them because of an objection by Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky. Bunning wants the $10 billion price offset by budget reductions.

The Senate is not expected to act until Tuesday at the earliest, which means as of this morning, certain extended jobless benefits will not be available. Neither will some highway or transit funds, small-business loans or help for newly laid-off workers for their insurance premiums.

Kyl, though, told Fox News Sunday flatly, "It will pass."

The Arizona senator also sympathized with Bunning. Recently, Congress adopted "pay as you go" rules requiring that, in many cases, new programs must be paid for. So why, Bunning asked, if these extensions are so popular, can't Congress find the money to fund them?

Democrats continued to express anger.

"Because of one senator's irresponsible actions, over 61,000 Michigan workers will begin losing their unemployment benefits on Monday," said Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.

Most people already getting extra jobless benefits are unlikely to be affected. Those who will feel the impact could include people who have exhausted their 26 weeks of state benefits and qualify for more aid under federal guidelines.

Source Story

Republicans Filibuster An Unemployment Benefits Extension Thursday Night

Retiring Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) late Thursday launched a one-man crusade to block an extension of unemployment and COBRA insurance benefits, vowing to allow the benefit programs to expire Sunday unless Democrats agreed to pay for them with unused stimulus funds.

Bunning’s quixotic pursuit of deficit offsets at the potential expense of payments to unemployed or uninsured citizens enraged Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and other Democrats, who vowed to keep the chamber in session until Bunning relents or collapses.

A senior Democratic leadership aide said Durbin would ask for a unanimous consent to pass the extensions without Bunning’s payment scheme every half hour for the foreseeable future. “We’re going to keep doing it until we break him,” the aide said.

http://www.rollcall.com/news/43594-1.html