The good news is that unemployment benefits will soon be restored for millions of out of work Americans. The bad news is that it won’t happen until another round of Beltway yammering comes to a close.
Democrats are taking up their megaphones, hammering Republicans for — yet again — forcing a delay in passage of unemployment benefits.
A statement by White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs” read:
A day after the Senate moved forward to pass the unemployment insurance extension to help millions of Americans fighting to get back on their feet and find work, the partisan minority in the Senate is yet again obstructing passage of this bill. After blocking this aid three separate times over the past weeks, Republicans have once again refused to reach an agreement and allow this bill to come to the floor for a vote quickly so these benefits can be restored. Republican obstruction has already cost 2.5 million Americans essential aid they need to pay their rent, put food on the table, and take care of their kids. By the end of this week, roughly 350,000 more Americans could be added to that number. The livelihoods of nearly 3 million Americans shouldn’t hinge on partisan game playing in Washington. This latest move gives the partisan minority thirty more hours to stall in the Senate, but that means thirty more hours of suffering for these hardworking families trying to get by.
“I want everyone’s who’s watching the proceedings tonight to understand what happened here tonight,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on the Senate floor last night. “I just can’t articulate in strong enough feelings how unfair this is to 2.5 million people.”
And indeed, Republicans did force a delay in Senate passage of the bill. But that’s not the whole story.
Yesterday, at his weekly press conference House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters, “The Senate is going to pass [unemployment] today at about 2:30 or sometime thereafter, and we are going to pass it the day following.” Obviously, by today, the legislation hadn’t yet passed the Senate — and, of course, the benefits won’t be restored until the President signs the bill into law.
So will the last-minute maneuvers really delay the benefit extension by that much? The Senate is expected to pass the legislation later today and the House will do so tonight, or perhaps as late as the wee hours of tomorrow — which puts the bill on the President’s desk Thursday morning, as Hoyer predicted prior to the GOP maneuvering. And while it’s true that if the Republicans hadn’t pulled this procedural lever (let alone if they hadn’t blocked the extension for weeks already) and if then the House had opted to act right away that the unemployment spigot might already be turned back on. But the record suggests that the House wasn’t going to act until today anyhow.
That will not, of course, stop anyone from trying to take advantage of the delay — or the added time to give speeches on the Senate floor — to their political advantage.
Brian Beutler
Brian Beutler is TPM's senior congressional reporter. Since 2009, he's led coverage of health care reform, Wall Street reform, taxes, the GOP budget, the government shutdown fight, and the debt limit fight. He can be reached at brian@talkingpointsmemo.com.
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