Jobless Victory in House as Senate Comes Up Short
The House of Representatives has passed a stand-alone bill to restore extended federal unemployment insurance benefits eligibility through the end of November. The vote was 270 to 153, a 117-vote margin in favor of the bill that would apply emergency spending provisions to fund the extended programs, and make their restoration retroactive to June 2nd. 241 Democrats were joined by 29 Republican House members voting in favor of the measure.
The victory in the House was a testament to the mounting public outrage over the failure of Congress to extend the federal unemployment programs. Since they were allowed to expire Memorial Day weekend, more than 1.2 million long-term unemployed workers have already stopped receiving any jobless benefits, with approximately 40,000 more added to those ranks every day.
The House victory, however, comes after the Senate again failed to move similar legislation to a vote last night. With 59 votes in favor of a cloture motion, the Senate’s unemployment extension measure was again blocked from getting a straight up-or-down majority vote. The final vote shows as 58 to 38, but that was after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) switched his vote to “No” — a procedural move to keep the bill alive and allow it to be reconsidered.
But that won’t happen until the Senate returns on July 12th from a Fourth of July week-long recess. If this feels eerily similar to what happened just before Memorial Day weekend, well that’s because it is.
Just last week, in their effort to impose sado-economic austerity on the U.S., all Senate Republicans, joined by Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, succeeded in blocking a larger jobs bill that included the unemployment extension.
This time, with a virtually stand-alone unemployment bill, Democrats were joined by Maine’s two Republican Senators, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, who seem to have finally gotten the message.
Sen. Ben Nelson again voted “No”, as did Republicans Scott Brown (MA), George Voinovich (OH) and Lisa Murkowski (AK), all of whom were receiving heavy constituent calls to support the bill, according to Senate sources. Also under pressure from constituents was retiring Missouri Republican Kit Bond, who did not vote.
With the passing of Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) this week, Democrats may have to wait for his replacement to be seated, unless they can garner one more vote to get to 60.
Pat Garofalo on the Wonk Room at Think Progress has an excellent piece on the 17 Senators from states with double-digit unemployment rates that repeatedly have supported the Republican-led filibuster of unemployment benefits.
Annie Lowrey at the Washington Independent has a lengthy rundown on all the recent rounds in this now-epic legislative battle.
Tags: filibuster, jobless benefits extension, unemployment
These people will send money overseas, but they will not help there own. The Senate is full of traitors.
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Everyone needs to pay attention to how your congress and senate people vote on this. That way you know who not to vote for. Everyone also needs to let them know they have lost the votes in elections and why.
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Keep reporting your unemployed status. This will keep the official unemployment more accurately reflecting reality.
Keep calling your US Senators & Representatives.
Make the above comments on articles and in forums. Tell anyone who claims they are paying for you to be unemployed that they are WRONG. Unemployment tax is paid by employers, not employees. They can check their pay stubs or better yet, do a little research and check for themselves:
“The Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA), with state unemployment systems, provides for payments of unemployment compensation to workers who have lost their jobs. Most employers pay both a Federal and a state unemployment tax. A list of state unemployment tax agencies, including addresses and phone numbers, is available in Publication 926, Household Employer’s Tax Guide. Only the employer pays FUTA tax; it is not deducted from the employee’s wages. For more information, refer to the Instructions for Form 940 (PDF). ”
http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/international/article/0,,id=104985,00.html
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