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Unemployment Extension Vote Live-Blog
October 27, 2009 - by Donny Shaw
With the jobless rate at 9.8 percent and rising, Senate Democrats have scheduled a big vote this afternoon to move forward with their bill to extend unemployment insurance benefits (H.R. 3548), which has been blocked by Republicans for the past month. I’ll be live-blogging the debate and the vote here and I invite you to help me out in comments section with capturing all the key quotes and information. The debate is scheduled to begin at around 5:30 pm ET with a vote taking place at 6:00, and it will be televised live on C-SPAN 2 (live online video here).
In the past month, Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid [D, NV] has repeatedly tried to speed up passage of the bill under a unanimous consent agreement. But Republicans objected each time and said that they were seeking changes related to the bill’s funding (and a few changes that are totally unrelated). More details on the process so far can be found on the OpenCongress Benefits Wiki.
Today’s vote is to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to an official debate of the bill. Invoking cloture requires 60 votes, and if it is approved the bill will move to the Senate floor for votes on amendments. Another cloture vote will likely be necessary to end the debate and bring the bill to a final up-or-down vote. The process will become clearer as the debate picks up, and I’ll be trying to keep track of it all here. Stay tuned!
4:30 p.m.: Reuters is reporting that bipartisan senators are very close to a deal for extending the $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers. No specifics out on the deal yet, but apparently it may be voted on tonight as an amendment to the unemployment bill. If it’s added, it is going to slow down the House’s action on approving the Senate’s amended unemployment bill.
4:47 p.m.: Senators are filtering back into the chamber and starting to give floor speeches on the unemployment bill. Sen. Cardin (D-MD) is up with a map of his state explaining why the Senate is changing the House bill to apply the extension to every state. Maryland’s jobless rate is a little lower than the national average — it’s around 7% — but individual counties within the state have rate as high as 10.8%. Under the House bill, those counties would not have been given the extension while a county in another state with a lower rate but a statewide average above 8.5% would get the extension.
5:03 p.m.: Here’s a link to the roll call details on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the UI benefits extension that the Senate passed last November. The motion passed 89-6 back then when the jobless rate was at 6.7%.
5:15 p.m.: Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) is up for what is probably the last speech before the cloture debate begins: Approximately 150,000 people have run out of unemployment benefits since the Republicans began delaying this bill 3 weeks ago. “We have the power and the ability to act. Let’s do it!” “Republican response to helping the unemployed is ‘No!’”
5:30 p.m.: OK, the debate on the cloture motion on the motion to proceed is officially beginning and it’s time for opening statements. Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) is up first. “Total cost for our bill $2.4 billion, payed for with an extension of the federal unemployment tax.”
5:40 p.m.: Via OpenCongress user JMatzelle57, breaking news:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) announced this afternoon, Tuesday October 27, that an extension of the $8,000 first-time homebuyer credit and more generous net operating loss carry-back rules for money-losing businesses will not be brought to the Senate floor for a vote. The unemployment insurance extension is still on the calendar and will be brought up as a stand-alone measure. HAI will provide updates as more information is released from Capitol Hill.
We’ll see if that’s accurate…
5:47 p.m.: Sen. Dorgan (D-ND) up: “Some of the people who are stalling the unemployment extension benefits were the same ones who rushed to the starting line last fall to see if they couldn’t hand hundreds of billions of dollars to the banks that ran this country into a ditch.”
5:50 p.m.: Really? No Republicans are going to speak on extending unemployment benefits? Vote’s in 10 minutes, it’s looking that way.
6:00 p.m.: The vote is underway …and it’s impossible to hear on C-Span how anyone is voting.
6:20 p.m.: Vote’s not quite over, but they’re well past 60 “ayes.” Here’s my running tally of the “noes” (13 so far):
Sen. John Barrasso [R, WY]
Sen. Christopher Bond [R, MO]
Sen. Jim Bunning [R, KY]
Sen. Thomas Coburn [R, OK]
Sen. John Cornyn [R, TX]
Sen. Jim DeMint [R, SC]
Sen. Michael Enzi [R, WY]
Sen. Lindsey Graham [R, SC]
Sen. Orrin Hatch [R, UT]
Sen. James Inhofe [R, OK]
Sen. Mike Johanns [R, NE]
Sen. Jefferson Sessions [R, AL]
Sen. David Vitter [R, LA]
Sen. Roger Wicker [R, MS]
6:26 p.m.: And that does it. Final vote tally is 87-13. The motion to proceed is agreed to.
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Comments
Displaying 1-30 of 344 total comments.
Since we’re still waiting, I though I would post this link from ProPublica:
http://www.propublica.org/special/is-your-states-unemployment-system-in-danger-603
They do great stuff over there, give it a read.
Kyl, Jon – (R – AZ) Class I
730 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4521
Web Form: kyl.senate.gov/contact.cfm
I have a feeling you will be needing this….
Kyl is the one who forced the CBO report a month ago to stall this
Kyl needs to be unemployed !
i sit here in tears, devastated by the fact the same individuals we voted into their cushy jobs really don’t care about us. halloween is this weekend and i can’t get my kids costumes for their school parade. i can’t even think about thanksgiving because my son’s birthday is right after! then there’s xmas. those fat cats on capitol hill sit there secure in the fact that they have money in the bank. they have good credit. they can pay their bills and put money in their kids pockets. we’ve borrowed money from so many people, they hate to see us coming! i’ve had to create a tab at the corner store because i’m frequently short on cash. they have no idea what it is to be on your last roll of toilet paper and no money to speak of. i’ve already watched my dream car get repossessed. my credit is shot. i couldn’t borrow money for a stick of gum! just give me my benefits already because no one is hiring and i worked hard for those benefits! cough ’em up!
Forget the shoe get tar and feathers
Kyl is on i have a shoe in my hand!
its obvious that this economy hasnt hit them or their families like it has me mine…or they would have taken their fingers out of their asses and passed this!
The question is do the GOP want to help the American People or use us as political pawns….They are waking up a sleeping giant…. The American People..
Tent cities for the unemployed in Phoenix and Tuscon, down the road from Kyl
REPULICOMMIES that voted no! Remember these guys have homes, cars, and loads of your money in their pockets. They don’t care about you or anyone that is not wealthy. If you can’t line their pockets your not worth a plug nickle.
6:20 p.m.: Vote’s not quite over, but they’re well past 60 “ayes.” Here’s my running tally of the “noes” (13 so far):
Sen. John Barrasso [R, WY]
Sen. Christopher Bond [R, MO]
Sen. Jim Bunning [R, KY]
Sen. Thomas Coburn [R, OK]
Sen. John Cornyn [R, TX]
Sen. Jim DeMint [R, SC]
Sen. Michael Enzi [R, WY]
Sen. Lindsey Graham [R, SC]
Sen. Orrin Hatch [R, UT]
Sen. James Inhofe [R, OK]
Sen. Jefferson Sessions [R, AL]
Sen. David Vitter [R, LA]
Sen. Roger Wicker [R, MS]
WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW TO HELP GET AN AGREEMENT… is to use your voice and CALL
They DO NOT agree on one (McConnell said “We were within one amendment of reaching an agreement”) “unrelated” amendment that Reid said was “vexatious”.
Focus on CALLING McConnell AND the two Nebraska senators that are pushing for the ACORN amendment. This is the main amendment preventing an agreement on H.R. 3548.
Senator Mitch McConnell – DC office: 202-224-2541
Senator Johanns – DC office: 202-224-4224
Senator Nelson – DC office: 202-224-6551
Ask them to add their ACORN amendment to another bill, this is not the time to punish ACORN, when hundreds of thousands of unemployed Americans are suffering. Tell them why passing an extension NOW is important to you and your family.
This is America and I will call them as I see them. That is why I am an independent! So screw off, you think they didn’t know. I am not giving any of them a pass! Dem or Repub’s I do agree the the Republican’s are the culprits now!!!!!!
If they oppose this I WILL NEVER vote for a Republican again in my life at any level local, state or federal.
Who wants to save a spot in the unemployment line for all these Senators?
once they get pass this Unemployment bill and Health care the Well should be dry. you would think after all this time.
what the hell am i supposed to do for money while these bureaucrats twiddle their thumbs? there are no jobs to be found. i’ve traveled across 4 different states looking for work only to be turned away. my kids have needs, my husband and i have needs and i’m sick of putting those needs on the back burner. i thought this was america! i don’t want to depend of unemployment, but it’s there because i worked for it if i needed. i need it so give it to me!!!! it’s mine!!!!!
I am not affiliated with any political party, but after reading on various sites and looking at the official list of Republican amendmants that have nothing to do with “Unemployment benefits help to people who NEED IT”, I will never ever ever vote for any Republican again EVER. If you are a Republican, and need unemployment look at how your party is treating you, and remember that come election time.
REGISTER INDEPENDENT! Just goes to show you both partys stink if they can’t work together for the unemployed tax payers of america! We pay them every week, why are they holding up paying us!!!!
If there is a perceived chance that anyone would try and delay the debate after a successful cloture vote to proceed… Why wouldn’t Senator Reid motion to invoke cloture on the bill today? It would move things along considerably, and isn’t that what he has been saying he wants to do? Motion for cloture TODAY… just in case we need it later. Based on what I’m hearing from the floor speeches, it doesn’t look like the Republicans are willing to withdraw some unrelated amendments like ACORN and E-Verify. Wow! They are so out of touch with what Americans care about, and even more, they are out of touch with what Americans NEED right now.
Extension of unemployment benefits will not fix unemployment. more jobs will fix unemployment. FDR, understood this. That’s why he formulated the “New Deal”.
Twenty-three… TWENTY-THREE states will not get this extension! Someone explain to me how this is fair?!?
You are really ridiculous. I am 61 years old and worked my whole life never asked for anything and now I need some help. If the government would stop giving money to worthless banks and auto companies that have lived high of the hog for all these years and continue to do so with our tax money we would not be in this problem to begin with. Even with the government money they are still taking huge bonuses and we can’t do a thing about it. You really should get your facts right before spouting off with your nonsense.
Let me get this straight….this really is only the vote to strip this down to just the unemployment issue….and we still have to wait for another yea/nay on the ‘extension’ itself??
bassmaster I am actually listening to bass creator right now by basshunter do you know who they are?
when is the actual vote? is it even on the calandar?
This is only the LIVE BLOG web page with 291 comments, if you go to the Board over at this link you will find 6,500 comments; we are all Slamming the 13 Traitors:
.
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h3548/comments?comment_sort=newest
crapp, why don’t they just go ahead and vote!!!! Please, anyone know what’s next.
The Environment can wait, No One is in a Rush for a New Healthcare Agency, just Expand Medicare to cover everyone, and Afghanistan is not threat to attack us. Get off of these distrations and get to JOBS and EMPLOYMENT, without working Americans no one is going to pay TAXES which are needed to fund all the other crap.
Donny, what happens next? Shouldn’t Reid motion for cloture on the bill now? If they couldn’t come to an agreement by now, it seems that he should “cut his losses” and move forward on the bill. What’s the plan, Stan… I mean Donny?