Reply #2: From The Hill [View All]

[tonysam]

Senate Democrats plan to pass another short-term emergency extension of unemployment aid this week, setting up a showdown with conservative Republicans demanding it be paid for.

Congress’s last extension of unemployment benefits and COBRA health insurance subsidies for the unemployed expires on April 5. With a 9.7 percent jobless rate and lawmakers scheduled to begin a two-week recess this weekend, congressional Democrats said another short-term extension is necessary soon.

Senate Democrats will bring up a temporary extension of jobless benefits after they finish work this week on the healthcare reconciliation bill, said Regan LaChapelle, a spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

The previous monthlong extension was delayed beyond its expiration date earlier this month by Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), who insisted that its $10 billion cost be offset. Democrats, who wanted to move the bill quickly through the upper chamber with the use of a unanimous-consent agreement, blasted Bunning and Republicans for endangering unemployment checks that some families rely on, even if it was just for a week.

The Hill

Of course there won't be a Tier V or more weeks added to Tier IV, as far as I know, and this needs to be done. I HATE these stupid shits in the Senate. They'll fart around, and then they will take off for their two-week vacation while people have to worry about whether they will have any money at all.