Thomas Ferraro
February 4, 2014
Photo courtesy politico.com
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senate Democrats on Tuesday set up a showdown vote with Republicans on a new bill to extend long-term unemployment benefits for 1.7 million Americans while making millionaires ineligible for such relief.
Democrats hold the Senate, 55-45, but may have difficulty mustering the 60 votes that will be needed on Thursday to clear a Republican procedural hurdle.
In a bid to build support, Democrats included a provision to bar those earning more than $1 million a year from drawing unemployment checks. The measure was modeled after one drafted a few years ago by Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.
Tax records show that in 2010 a couple of thousand unemployed millionaires managed to get federal or state jobless benefits, backers of the legislation said.
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid scheduled the vote for Thursday after rejecting Republican requests that they be allowed to propose a number of amendments to the Democratic bill.
In describing the bill on the Senate floor, Reid said, “What we are going to do is offer a fully paid for three-month extension of unemployment insurance.”
“That’s what Republicans said they wanted, and we agreed to it,” Reid said, alluding to Republican demands last month. “We will not agree to an unlimited number of amendments.”
If and when the Senate passes a bill to restore jobless benefits, the measure would go the Republican-led House of Representatives for consideration.
The Senate bill was introduced by Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat whose state has one of the highest jobless rates in the nation, more than 9 percent.
Senate Republicans last month blocked an earlier version of the bill, which Reed co-sponsored with Republican Senator Dean Heller of Nevada.
But, unlike the previous bill, the new one would fully cover the $6.4 billion cost of providing jobless benefits for an additional three months and would not increase the record federal debt load, Reed said.