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Internet ScamsFederal Unemployment Extention NewsSixty votes. That's what Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid needs today on a crucial test vote in order to advance the Creating American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act for a final vote later this week. Among the bills provisions is an extension of federal unemployment benefits through November.
It's not clear how Reid expects to garner 60 votes. As of yesterday, no Senate Republican had come forward to support the bill. According to the Washington Independent, moderate Republican Olympia Snowe (Maine), Scott Brown (Mass.) and Susan Collins (Maine) are still against the bill, as is Sen. Ben Nelson, a Democrat who may vote against the bill because it will increase deficit spending. Calling for an end to debate on the floor, Reid warned, “We’ll learn a lot this week about who wants to fix problems, and who wants to make excuses.” He castigated the opposition party’s intransigence: “If Republicans have their way, next week will be yet another without a lifeline for the most needy, those willing and wanting to work. The other side has slowed and stalled just about every piece of legislation this year — just as they did last year and the year before that. That’s not a secret. The numbers don’t lie, and Republicans make no efforts to hide their strategy of delay.”
In order to get the needed 60 votes, Reid may have to make even more changes to the bill in order to advance it.
If the Senate does pass the bill this week, its version of the bill would have to go back to the House of Representatives for a revote, which means that final passage of the bill wouldn't come until next week at the earliest. HuffPo is reporting that by the end of this week, 903,000 unemployed Americans will have missed checks because of Congress's inability to get this done. Update: 12 p.m., June 15: Senate Democrats consider eliminating extra $25 per week from federal unemployment benefit program |    |
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