Published: June 11, 2010
Mlive.com

Congress takes four-day break as unemployed wait to find out if federal benefit program will be extended

By Jackie Headapohl

Congress headed home yesterday for a four-day break as hundreds of thousands more unemployed people stand to lose benefits while it dithers back and forth on the Creating American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act, which includes an extension of federal unemployment benefits through November.

This break comes right on the tail of Congress's 10-day Memorial Day recess.

The Senate returned to work Monday evening and began debating the bill Tuesday and Wednesday, and then spent Thursday on an unrelated energy bill, reports the Miami Herald.

Senators agreed to resume voting next Tuesday. Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the break had been "long planned." 

What has the Senate accomplished on the bill during its four-day work week?

• Sen. Jim Casey proposed an amendment to add federal Cobra subsidies back into the bill.
• Republicans introduced their own version of the bill yesterday. It extends several individual and business tax breaks, as well as unemployment insurance. It also extends the so-called 'doc fix' through 2012. However, the measure does not provide state aid for Medicaid and welfare nor does it include any of the revenue-generating tax increases in the Democratic bill.
• Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid proposed an amendment to extend the home buyers tax credit.

Also yesterday, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich) joined colleagues in calling out Senate Republicans who are stalling the passage.

"We are where we are because of objections, and threats of filibusters, and filibusters that have slowed this process down every step of the way," Stabenow told reporters. "We could today fix this — right now — go to the floor and in five minutes fix this. But what will happen is we will see an objection on the Republican side that will block this [bill]. ... The only reason that we have not voted on it is that we are still negotiating for the votes."

Republican Sen. John Thune, (S.D.) countered, "Everything that's being done out here right now is killing jobs, raising taxes and adding to the debt."

Congress has been working on passing one version or another of this bill since January. This is the third time this year it has let the federal unemployment benefit program expire. Unemployed people are angry and frustrated. Apparently though, senators aren't concerned about what unemployed voters might do in November.

As quoted in the Miami Herald, Evans Witt, the chief executive officer of Princeton Survey Research Associates, said:

The unemployed tend to vote in smaller numbers than those with jobs do. In November 2008, the U.S. Commerce Department found, 54.8 percent of unemployed people voted, compared with 65.9 percent of people with jobs.