January 7, 2014

Jobless Benefits Extension Clears One Hurdle, but More Remain

By JONATHAN WEISMAN

WASHINGTON A Democratic push to extend unemployment benefits that have expired squeaked past a Republican filibuster Tuesday, setting off intense negotiations to find a way to pay for the program and win over a skeptical House leadership. The Senates 60-to-37 vote to take up a three-month extension of benefits passed with no room to spare, and some of the six Republicans who voted yes made clear they want the cost of the extension set off by cuts elsewhere in the budget. Still, it was the rarest of Washington moments, a genuine surprise. It was in the balance til the very last minute, said Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island, an author of the measure with Senator Dean Heller, Republican of Nevada. President Obama, flanked by unemployed Americans as he spoke in the East Room of the White House, tried to keep up the pressure, first on the Senate to pass the bill and then on the House. Weve got to get this across the finish line without obstruction or delay, he said, even as he praised the surprise outcome. But the House speaker, John A. Boehner of Ohio, made clear he would exact a price for consideration in the House, saying that not only would an extension of expired benefits have to be paid for but that it must also be tied to Republican priorities, such as building the Keystone XL oil pipeline, expanding exemptions from the Affordable Care Act and opening energy exploration on federal land. 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, Mr. Boehner said after the Senate vote. To date, the president has offered no such plan. If he does, Ill be happy to discuss it, but right now the House is going to remain focused on growing the economy and giving Americas unemployed the independence

that only comes from finding a good job. On Monday night, Senate leaders abruptly postponed a vote on the measure. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, was about to call the vote when the Senates No. 2 Republican, John Cornyn of Texas, accused him of manufacturing a political issue by holding a vote with 17 senators absent, mostly because of weather delays. Mr. Reid then gruffly asked for consent to postpone it until Tuesday morning.

Conservative Republicans remained resolute in opposition, contending that issuing emergency MORE IN POLITIC unemployment checks would only discourage job seekers. But five Republicans beside Mr. Obama Pra Heller sided with Democrats to take up the extension: Senators Rob Portman of Ohio, Dan Move to Ex

Benefits Coats of Indiana, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski Read More of Alaska.
Ms. Collins said she spoke at length with the president Monday morning, inviting him to help find a way to pay for the bill and to make structural changes to the unemployment program. She suggested that after a year, benefits should be linked to enrollment in job-training programs, a suggestion she said Mr. Obama was open to. Democrats were cautious about the bills chances of being enacted. Senator Charles E. Schumer, of New York, saidit had taken weeks to reach a budget deal that included savings about twice as large as lawmakers need to find for the unemployment extension. He said he feared Republicans allowed the bill to go forward only to steer Democrats into a cul-de-sac or a Mexican standoff in which both sides offer their own measures to pay for the benefits but neither would compromise. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, offered a glimpse of that when he suggested that the bill be paid for by a one-year reprieve from the mandate that uninsured individuals purchase health insurance or face a tax penalty, and the reversal of a controversial measure in the just-passed budget that slows the growth of veterans benefits. The issue of extending unemployment benefits and a separate push to raise the minimum wage, which is also on the Senates docket, are looking as much like campaign themes as legislative ventures. Senator Mark S. Kirk, an Illinois Republican whom Mr. Obama tried and failed to reach Monday, said Democrats wanted to have Republicans vote no, so they can bash them in the next election. And Democrats did not exactly deny it. Mr. Schumer boasted that the tectonic plates of our politics are shifting from a Republican focus on the budget deficit and the health care law to a Democratic push on issues of employment and income inequality.

And Representative Steve Israel of New York, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said, If the Republicans refuse to pass unemployment insurance and cling to their opposition to increasing the minimum wage, these will be bookend issues for 2014. But the drive to extend unemployment insurance has put both parties into awkward political positions. Mr. Reid opened the second session of the 113th Congress Monday by declaring: The rich keep getting richer. The poor keep getting poorer, and the middle class are under siege. It was hardly an endorsement for an economy entering its sixth year under Mr. Obamas watch. I dont think you concede the economy stinks, Mr. Israel said. The concession is that the economy could be stronger and still people would need support as they look for new jobs. Republicans find themselves making the case that extending emergency unemployment benefits first issued during the Great Recession of 2008 would only discourage able-bodied workers from finding jobs. At the same time, they continue to blame Mr. Obama for tough economic times. The president continues to blame Republicans for failing to pass unemployment insurance, and yet he refuses to take responsibility for his failed big-government policies that have put us in this position, Mr. Cornyn said.