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Senate moves towards restoring benefits for long-term unemployed Senate moves towards restoring benefits for long-term unemployed
(about 1 hour later)
The Senate unexpectedly moved towards the temporary restoration of long-term unemployment insurance benefits on Tuesday, after Democrats managed to convince a handful of Republicans to break ranks. A bipartisan bill to revive federal payments to around 1.3 million Americans will soon move to the Republican-controlled House. The Senate unexpectedly moved towards the temporary restoration of long-term unemployment insurance benefits on Tuesday, after Democrats managed to convince a handful of Republicans to break ranks. A bipartisan bill to revive federal payments to around 1.3 million Americans will now move to the Republican-controlled House.
In a wafer-thin vote on Tuesday, exactly 60 senators – the minimum number required – voted in favour of “cloture”, a procedural measure that cuts off debate and moves legislation towards final approval. In a surprise move, the Senate voted 60 to 37 to expedite the legislation which provides a three-month extension to a federal benefits program for the long-term unemployed that expired at the end of December.
Six Republicans broke with their party to support the measure. Their votes were essential, not least because three senators, one of them a Democrat, were unable to make the roll call, apparently because of the extreme weather currently affecting much of the US. Immediately after the vote, president Barack Obama appeared at the White House, flanked by a group of unemployed people, to welcome what he called “a very important step” for the estimated 14 million Americans who would suffer if the benefits are not revived.
A final Senate vote on the bill, which only requires a simple majority of the 100 senators, is now almost certain to pass, before the measure moves to the House. He urged supporters to increase pressure on Congress to reintroduce benefits that he said were a lifeline to people looking for work.
Jobseekers who have been out of work for more than six months lost their benefits at the end of December after a bipartisan budget deal on federal spending failed to include a reauthorisation of the insurance program. An additional, smaller group of people saw their benefits cut off on Saturday. “This is not an abstraction,” the president said. “These are not statistics. These are your neighbours, your friends, your family members. It could, at some point, be any of us.”
The ‘emergency’ federal benefits program in question applies only to those who’ve been out of work for an unusually long period in times of exceptionally high unemployment. Republicans argue that the bill, which extends the benefits for three months, will do little to help those affected actually find new jobs, and will add an additional $6.4bn to the deficit. However, John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the House who controls the passage of legislation in the lower chamber, showed little appetite for backing the initiative unless the $6.4bn cost was offset with other savings – and accompanied with other job creation initiatives.
Democrats and the White House are behind a concerted push to restore the program, part of their effort to make economic inequality and poverty major political issues in the run-up to November’s mid-term elections. Congressional analysts believe there would be sufficient Republican defections for the bill to pass in the House, if Boehner agrees for it to be put to a vote.
“One month ago I personally told the White House that another extension of temporary emergency unemployment benefits should not only be paid for but include something to help put people back to work,” Boehner said.
“To date, the president has offered no such plan. If he does, I’ll be happy to discuss it, but right now the House is going to remain focused on growing the economy and giving America’s unemployed the independence that only comes from finding a good job.”
The "emergency" federal benefits program applies only to the long-term jobseekers in times of exceptionally high unemployment. Republican opponents of the emergency benefits program point out the overall unemployment rate has recently fallen to 7%.
Democrats and leading economists counter that the long-term unemployment rate remains stubbornly high at 2.6%, as opposed to a typical rate of 1%. Spending on long-term benefits is also considered an effective means of stimulating the economy because recipients spend the money on goods and services.
In brief remarks before the Senate vote, the Republican minority leader, Mitch McConnell, accused Democrats of seeking to “slap on another band-aid from Washington and call it a day”.
But McConnell and other Republican leaders were unable to stop some of six fellow GOP senators from supporting the motion.
That support proved crucial. In a wafer thin vote, exactly 60 senators – the minimum number required – voted to invoke “cloture”, the parliamentary measure that cuts off debate and expedites legislation.
A final Senate vote on the bill – which only requires a simple majority of Senate’s 100 lawmakers – is now likely pass, and the bill will move to the House.
“We need to get this over the finish line and get the House of Representatives to vote for it too,” Obama said.
The outcome of the Senate vote took Democrats by surprise. 
Moments before the roll call, Harry Reid, the majority leader, appeared braced for defeat when he recalled the original vote to authorise unemployment insurance in 2008, when both Democrats and Republicans backed a request from then-president George W Bush.
“Not today,” Reid said. “We’re not going to do it because we can’t get the Republicans to help us.”
However when votes were cast, six Republican senators had supported the measure. 
They included Dean Heller, the Nevada lawmaker who co-sponsored the bill, and Susan Collins of Maine, who had declared their intention to back the vote.
Jack Reed, the Rhode Island senator who was the Democratic co-sponsor of the bill, conceded afterwards he was “surprised” by the vote. “It was in the balance until the very last moment,” he said.
Other Republicans who voted for the bill were Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rob Portman of Ohio and Dan Coats of Indiana.
Portman and Murkowski were among the Republican senators who represent states that, according to a Guardian analysis, are suffering particularly badly from the decision to discontinue the benefits.
Three senators were unable to attend the vote, apparently kept away by bad weather.
The Republicans who backed the motion for cloture did so despite being urged not to by Club for Growth, a staunchly conservative group wielding significant power over Republican legislators during election years.
A number of Republicans had also been directly lobbied by Obama, who usually had an arms-length approach to congress.
“He doesn’t normally like calling us,” Republican senator Mark Kirk told Politico after speaking with the president. Kirk, whose state of Illinois has an unemployment rate of 8.7%, voted against the measure.
The debate over poverty and income is shaping up to be a major battleground for 2014, and is expected to feature prominently in Obama’s state of the union address at the end of the month. Democrats are determined to press on with what they believe is a vote-losing issue for Republicans.
Following the fight over long-term benefits, Democrats plan to resuscitate the longstanding campaign to increase the minimum wage, a move which has broad public support, even among Tea Party supporters.
Republicans are divided over how to respond, although some believe the GOP should be seeking to carve out its own, fiscally conservative agenda for addressing poverty. Senator Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican and possible 2014 presidential candidate, will give a major speech on Wednesday in which he seeks to do just that.
Timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of president Lyndon B Johnson’s famed "war on poverty" speech, Rubio's speech in Washington is expected to reject a government-orientated approach to dealing with poverty.
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