The Senate finds itself in an all-too-familiar but very uncomfortable place, facing an April 5 expiration of expanded unemployment insurance and COBRA subsidy programs while it looks to adjourn for a two-week recess this Friday. Despite the fact that both the House and the Senate already passed bills extending those and other programs through the end of 2010, differences between those bills still need to be worked out, something that won’t happen immediately. That means that the Senate will need to pass yet another 30-day extension, something the House has already accomplished.
If this all sounds a bit like the movie Groundhog Day there’s good reason. This is at least the fourth time since last Fall that Congress has had to take up an emergency short-term extension of these critically needed benefits for millions of unemployed.
This time, if the Senate fails to act in time, an estimated one million jobless Americans could lose their unemployment benefits entirely in the month of April alone.
Last time, you’ll recall, the week-long shameless obstruction led by Republican Senator Jim Bunning (KY) was finally defeated and the programs were continued to April 5. Now that deadline isn’t just right around the corner — it’s practically upon us as the Senate plans to take two-weeks off starting the end of this week.
“The Senate has a very important obligation to the unemployed of this country and their families,” Judy Conti, federal advocacy coordinator for the National Employment Law Project, told me today. “Once they finish the business of reforming health care this week, they must pass the 30-day extension of the UI and COBRA programs,” she said, adding that “Senate leadership must commit to staying in session until it is passed, and no one should obstruct this important piece of legislation that is the only lifeline for a million workers next month alone.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) reportedly will seek to bring the 30-day extension to a vote under a unanimous consent request, as he did in late February for the previous emergency extension. Whether Bunning or other Republicans would object, forcing a more time consuming set of procedural votes, is uncertain. Republicans could also stall, or endanger timely passage completely, by trying to insist on changes to the bill passed by the House.
If Republicans, tired and bruised by their defeats on health care reform, want to go home for recess, they won’t stand in the way of continuing unemployment benefits for millions of Americans. But if they do attempt their usual obstructions again this time, the Democrats should keep them in session until it is passed.
Tell the Senate to pass the 30-day unemployment and COBRA benefits extension immediately. Click here to send your Senators that message now.
Tags: COBRA, Jim Bunning, unemployment, unemployment extension
Having callously blocked Senate action on an emergency 30-day extension of expanded jobless benefit programs for an entire week, Republican obstructionist Senator Jim Bunning late yesterday dropped his objection to proceed on the bill in the face of a wave of opposition and fissures in his own party.
Democrats had vowed to keep the Senate in session overnight if necessary to end Bunning’s obstruction. Senate Republican leaders, who had voiced support for Bunning earlier, finally convinced the retiring Kentucky Senator to allow a vote to proceed. An amendment Bunning offered was defeated 53-43 and the 30-day emergency unemployment benefits and COBRA subsidy extension finally passed 78-19. All of the 19 Senators voting against the bill were Republicans.
The 30-day emergency extension had passed the House by voice vote last week. After the Senate’s long-delayed action last night, President Obama signed the bill into law.
The expanded unemployment benefits, COBRA subsidy and other relief programs initiated in last year’s Recovery Act, extended twice in short-term measures after earlier Republican delays, had run out on Sunday February 28. Hundreds of thousands of jobless workers had begun to lose their unemployment insurance. The 30-day extension reinstates those benefits retroactively.
Blocking the extension measure had provoked a virtual rhubarb in the Senate, and sparked a well-deserved storm of protest against Bunning and Senate Republicans who displayed their utter disregard for the struggles of America’s nearly 15 million unemployed. The outrage prompted even the usually staid Bob Schieffer, host of CBS’ “Face the Nation”, to call Bunning’s obstruction “unconscionable.”
So Where Are We Now?
All of the Recovery Act’s expanded unemployment insurance (UI) programs and COBRA health insurance subsidies for eligible jobless workers have been extended through the end of March. Those programs, with their various Tiers of extra weeks and extended benefits in specific states, are explained in detail by George Wentworth of the National Employment Law Project in our prior post Unemployment Insurance – Ask an Expert. I highly recommend reviewing that invaluable post.
Jobless workers who are receiving unemployment insurance payments now will be able to continue to receive benefits at their current period of eligibility and have those benefits extended to the next Tier or Extended Benefits period depending on their state’s programs (again, please refer the ‘Ask an Expert‘ post).
For now, however, no additional Tier or added weeks of benefits beyond these programs is included in either the 30-day extension or the full-year plan now being considered in the Senate.
What’s Next?
It took an entire week, tying up virtually all other Senate business, to get a temporary one-month benefits extension passed. That fact alone is reason enough for the Senate to move rapidly on the full-year extension of these and other programs supported by the Obama administration.
The Senate today returns to take up the larger year-long extension bill. More than 11 million Americans are depending on unemployment benefits, and more than 6 million jobless workers have been out of work for six months or more. One-month and two-month benefit program extensions, continuously delayed and obstructed as they’ve been, are just not sufficient.
Enough! Tell Congress to pass the full-year extension of unemployment insurance and COBRA now.
Tags: Jim Bunning, jobless benefits extension, unemployment insurance
Sen. Jim Bunning definitely knew he was taking aim at jobless workers when he blocked the urgently-needed extension of unemployment benefits. Did he know or does he care that he was also causing this?
The Department of Transportation will furlough nearly 2,000 employees without pay Monday, temporarily shutting down highway reimbursements to states worth hundreds of millions of dollars, national anti-drunk driving efforts, and multi-million dollar construction projects across the country.
The action comes as a result of Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning’s decision to block key legislation that would have extended several critical priorities for middle class families. That legislation covered tax credits for COBRA health coverage, unemployment insurance for 400,000 people, as well as the short-term extension of the Highway Trust Fund. The Fund supports all surface transportation programs for the nation – highways, bridges, transit and safety inspections, as well as efforts to encourage seat belt use and to fight distracted and impaired driving.
“As American families are struggling in tough economic times, I am keenly disappointed that political games are putting a stop to important construction projects around the country,” said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “This means that construction workers will be sent home from job sites because federal inspectors must be furloughed.”
Oh, and this too:
On Friday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) also pointed out that 1.5 million people may also “be unable to watch local TV stations” beginning today — also because of Bunning’s block on the bill, which includes a “satellite television extension” allowing rural residents to watch local TV stations via satellite. According to MultiChannel news, without the extension, “satellite operators will not be allowed to import distant affiliate TV station signals to viewers who cannot receive a viewable version of their local affiliate.”
Presumably a loss of local TV service to rural residents will affect at least a few people in Kentucky. But Bunning’s already made it pretty clear that he doesn’t care about them—after all, 59,558 Kentuckians could lose their unemployment benefits by June because of the extension he has gone to such trouble to block.
Tags: Jim Bunning, jobless benefits extension, unemployment
If you were up late watching the Senate on C-SPAN last night (yes, I was) you would have witnessed an astonishing case of shameless obstruction by Republican Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky.
In an effort to enact emergency legislation to extend the expanded federal unemployment insurance and COBRA health subsidies beyond February 28, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) brought a series of unanimous consent requests to act on the bill. Every request was met with an objection by Bunning, a stunt he’d begun on Wednesday.
Because of Bunning’s obstruction it is likely that current jobless aid program extensions will expire this Sunday. More than one million long-term jobless face the expiration of these benefits unless Congress can quickly pass an emergency, retroactive extension either this weekend or early next week.
Following each objection by Bunning last night, Senate Democrats led by Durbin responded with passionate pleas on behalf of America’s unemployed millions, and denunciations of Bunning’s cold hypocrisy. Senators Sanders (D-VT), McCaskill (D-MO), Merkley (D-OR), Begich (D-AK), Whitehouse (D-RI) and Reed (D-RI) joined Durbin in delivering some of the most emotionally charged defenses of hard-working Americans heard on the Senate floor in years.
Earlier in the day, an emergency one-month jobless aid extension passed the House by a voice vote.
Then came the series of obstructing objections by Bunning, reportedly peppered with a choice, overheard expletive.
In a colloquy with Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Sen. Jeff Merkley, a freshman Democrat from Oregon, was pleading for Bunning to drop his objection, when the Kentucky Republican got fed up.
“Tough s—t,” Bunning said as he was seated in the back row, overheard by the floor staff and others in attendance.
During the hours of back-and-forth objections from Bunning and responses from Democrats, Bunning complained that he was missing the Kentucky-South Carolina basketball game.
From The New York Times story: Bunning Blocks Jobless Aid in Senate:
12:06 a.m. | Updated The Senate clash over the unemployment benefits ended just before midnight Thursday with Senator Jim Bunning, Republican of Kentucky, refusing to lift his objection, meaning the jobless aid – for however short a time – will run out Sunday night unless a deal is reached Friday.
As the fight drew to a close, Mr. Bunning complained he had been ambushed by the Democrats and was forced to miss the Kentucky-South Carolina basketball game.
Over at Congress Matters today David Waldman noted this about Bunning:
… he’s blocking unemployment benefits for those hard hit by the recession, when he himself, as a Hall of Fame pitcher, can generate cash for himself any time he needs it (and often does) just by signing his name to a baseball. Maybe not everyone in America can turn a pen into an ATM, Jimbo.
Still lurking is Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) who threatens to block future jobless aid extensions, as well as additional jobs legislation, unless he can advance a plan to cut taxes for heirs of multi-millionaires.
It is likely that Senate Democrats will still need a procedural vote on cloture before getting to vote on the one-month emergency jobless benefits extension, something that might not come until next Tuesday — unless the Senate remains in session this weekend.
We’ll continue to keep you posted.
Meanwhile, if you would like to share your thoughts with them by phone:
Sen. Jim Bunning 202-224-4343
Sen. Jon Kyl (202) 224-4521
Tags: Jim Bunning, jobless benefits extension, Jon Kyl, unemployment
Earlier today we reported that Jim Bunning is blocking the much-needed unemployment insurance extension because of a dispute over how it would be funded.
That’s his reason for cutting off (at least temporarily) a lifeline to more than a million people.
Arizona Senator Jon Kyl has a different reason: He’ll be holding America’s job-seekers hostage to the interests of America’s multi-millionaires, blocking the extension of unemployment benefits until he gets an estate tax bill he likes; namely, one that benefits the very wealthy.
This is a fairly shocking admission of priorities. 1.1 million workers are scheduled to have their unemployment benefits expire in the next month, with 2.7 million on track to lose them by April, while unemployment is still at 9.7 percent and there are six unemployed workers for every job opening. 6.3 million Americans have been unemployed for six months or longer, which is the most since the government began keeping track in 1948 and “more than double the toll in the next-worst period, in the early 1980s.” Yet Kyl is willing to hold unemployment benefits hostage in order to fashion a tax cut for heirs of the very wealthiest estates.
Due to a Bush-era budgeting gimmick, the estate tax is currently expired, but it is set to come back in 2011 at the Clinton-era level, which Kyl has an intense interest in preventing. His proposal to slash the estate tax rate and increase its exemption would cost $250 billion over ten years, with 99 percent of the benefit going to the heirs of multi-millionaires. Under 2009 law, only 0.2 percent of estates are subject to the estate tax at all.
This is just unbelievably despicable. Kyl is willing to cut off the meager benefits keeping struggling families afloat in order to benefit the wealthiest 0.2% of people, while costing the government money. In Kyl’s home state of Arizona, 28,832 people will lose their benefits in March, a number that will rise to 120,166 by June.
Give Sen. Kyl a call, why don’t you, and ask why he’s holding struggling job-seekers hostage to the interests of people who already have so much money they will never need to work. Kyl’s office phone number is (202) 224-4521. Call now.
Tags: Jim Bunning, Jon Kyl, unemployment
According to Reuters, attempts by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to move an emergency unemployment aid extension in the Senate are being thwarted:
Reid had hoped to quickly pass a short-term extension of unemployment benefits for more than a million people to ensure they are not terminated at the end of February, but Republican Senator Jim Bunning blocked it.
Policy advocates on Capitol Hill this morning confirmed that Sen. Bunning (R-KY) is currently holding up an emergency measure to extend the expanded federal support for unemployment insurance and COBRA subsidies set to expire in three days.
A spokesman for Senator Bunning said this morning that Bunning had objected to Senator Reid’s unanimous consent request to proceed on the measure, citing a dispute over how it should be funded.
Kentucky’s jobless rate, which exceeds the national average, increased to 10.7% in December, the last month of available state statistics. Numerous counties in Kentucky report unemployment rates of 13% or more, as can be seen on this Washington Post interactive map of unemployment rates by state and county. (click on the map to zoom in)
Several counties in rural eastern Kentucky have jobless rates of 15% or higher, including Magoffin County at 21.4%.
As we have been reporting here for weeks one million unemployed Americans will lose their extended benefits and COBRA health insurance subsidies immediately if Congress fails to act before February 28.
And while Senate Majority Leader Reid is working on a larger, year-long jobless benefits extension, the emergency one-month extension needed right now is being blocked by Republican Senator Bunning.
Call Senator Bunning’s office at 202-224-4343. Tell Senator Bunning to stop blocking the emergency jobless benefits extension for the more than 221,000 out-of-work Kentuckians and the millions of jobless Americans across the country.
Tags: Jim Bunning, jobless benefits extension, unemployment
