Unemployment compensation is uncertain for as many as 400,000 Americans; a Senate bill to extend benefits is currently held up by one senator. Republican Sen. Jim Bunning from Kentucky wants the Senate to find a way to pay for the $10 billion of spending the bill authorizes rather than add to the federal deficit.
The bill authorizes extension of unemployment compensation and other programs including health insurance subsidies for COBRA for people who lose their jobs.
Sen. Bunning objected to a procedure called “unanimous consent” that would expedite the bill and requires all senators to cooperate.
On the Senate floor on Thursday, he said he believes the Senate should find a way to pay for the spending bill. In a statement posted on his Web site, he said during the last three years the Democrats have controlled Congress, “We have run up $5 trillion in debt. There has to be a time to stop that.”
Benefits for hundreds of thousands of people who have lost their jobs and with them their health insurance, “All of that is threatened because one person has decided to stop the entire process,” said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs Monday at press briefing.
Benefits expired Monday for some unemployed Americans. According to the Department of Labor, during the first weeks of March 400,000 Americans will lose unemployment benefits. As many as 3 million Americans would lose these benefits by May if the spending bill does not pass.
Millions of dollars of highway reimbursements to the states through the Highway Trust Fund have been put on hold and the U.S. Department of State furloughed 2,000 DOT employees March 1. Transportation construction projects throughout the country have been put on hold until funding returns.
“The consequences of partisan obstructionism could not be clearer. If the extension is not approved immediately, millions of Americans could lose the safety net programs they deserve and desperately need,” said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis in a statement released by the Department of Labor.
With 60 votes the Senate could approve the funding without Bunning’s support. The Senate is also considering similar bills that would fund the same programs. Something may be passed by the end of the week.
