Showdown in the Senate on Unemployment Insurance and COBRA Benefits

[Joanne98]

For one week, at least 200,000 out-of-work Americans have seen their jobless benefits expire, despite near double-digit unemployment and a growing number of people who have been unable to find a job for 27 weeks or more. The Congress recessed for two weeks without reaching agreement on an extension of those benefits, which has been historically customary during periods of high unemployment. In particular, Senate Republicans objected to a one-month extension, passed by the House, without offsets like spending cuts or paying for the extension using unspent stimulus money. And Democrats failed to file cloture early enough to get the extension done.

The Majority Leader’s office vowed to take up a cloture vote today on a motion to proceed with a one-month extension, both of unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless and the 65% subsidy for COBRA to help the unemployed keep the health insurance from their former job. If cloture passes, it kicks off a process that could last several days before the ultimate passage. To break cloture, the Senate would need at least one Republican to vote to proceed on the bill. Sen. Harry Reid has said that the bill would include retroactive benefits to compensate those who saw their benefits expire, but this is both expensive and confusing to individuals and state unemployment compensation offices.

This is assumed to be a short-term fix until the House and Senate agree to a version of the “extenders” bill passed by the Senate back in March. That bill extended unemployment insurance and the COBRA subsidy through to the end of the year.

Today’s vote may not even clear the initial hurdle if all Republicans hold firm. The party line is that they support the extension but merely want to offset the cost.

“We both want to extend unemployment benefits,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), the GOP’s No. 3 leader. “The Democrats want to do it by adding to the debt. Republicans don’t want to add to the debt.”

Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) made the same argument when he led the GOP’s stand against a previous extenders package at the beginning of March. That blockade lasted five days and drew national press attention, much of it unfavorable to Bunning and his party.

Unemployment extensions of this type have almost always been treated as emergency spending previously. Furthermore, these benefits represent, according to the nonpartisan CBO, practically the best economic stimulus possible

http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/04/12/showdown-in-the-senate-on-unemployment-insurance-and-cobra-benefits/