2010 Unemployment Extensions - Reid Delaying, Waiting on Byrd Successor

2010 Unemployment Extensions - In spite of the tremendous cries of 2 million jobless Americans now without benefits, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D- Nev) is apparently digging in his heels and waiting for the replacement for the late Senator Robert Byrd (D-W. Virg.) to give him the 60^th vote needed for a Democrat version of the unemployment extension bill to gain cloture and then pass.

Initially expected to be in place in the Senate on Monday, July 12, when Congress reconvened after the 4^th of July recess, Byrd's replacement has not yet been named. Governor Joe Manchin (D-W. Virginia) first needed clarification of his state's laws regarding the appointment as well as a subsequent special election for the seat. Having gotten that last week, Manchin is now waiting for the go ahead from his state legislature for him to make the appointment. That special session of the legislature is not scheduled until Thursday, delaying the swearing in of an appointee until at least next week.

But now there is even concern over the two Republican votes that Reid had managed to garner for the last vote. Seems Reid may be intent on bringing to the floor the broader bill which includes the unemployment extensions but also has a number of other provisions that Republican Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both of Maine, are said to be balking at. Snowe and Collins had voted in favor of a mostly standalone unemployment extension bill prior to the 4^th of July recess. If Reid insists on bringing a different version of the bill to the floor, he may not have their support, in which case not even the Byrd replacement will be sufficient to get the unemployment extensions through the Senate.

There will undoubtedly be more wheeling and dealing going on in the Senate as Reid decides which version of an unemployment extension bill to put forward and tries to pull together the 60 votes needed for cloture on the bill. It is not expected that he will put the bill to a vote until he has the votes.

In the meantime, Reid could, if he chose to, end our misery TODAY and put up one of the Republican bills for a vote. As late as the week before the recess, Republican Senator Scott Brown put up a fully funded unemployment benefits bill which included extending Cobra benefits and provided summer job help, but Reid refused to bring it to the floor. Any one of the Republican UI extension bills would have the full support of all of the Republicans as well as Democratic Senator Bill Nelson (D-Neb.) and Independent Joe Liebermann (I-Conn.), but the Democrats have rejected every one.

I, for one, don't know how much longer I can hold out without benefits. I received my last check several weeks ago and have already gone through all of the money. For me, and millions of others just like me, utility bills are overdue, rent and mortgages are already critically behind and finding ways to feed our families is getting harder by the day.

I hope Senator Harry Reid will end this deadlock now and simply pass a Republican unemployment extension bill and allow us to live to fight another day. If he truly cared about the unemployed, there would be no reason to keep delaying. Clearly, there is another motivation for the Democrats, and it has nothing to do with good governance - Just nasty politics.

Sources:

http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/801-economy/108197-unemployment-benefits-bill-on-hold-until-byrd-replacement-named

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/34924/20100712/unemployment-insurance.htm