OpenCongress Blog

Blog Feed Comments Feed More RSS Feeds

Stabenow Calls for Passage of Tier V Unemployment Extension Bill, Lemieux Objects

September 29, 2010 - by Donny Shaw

This afternoon Sen. Debbie Ann Stabenow [D, MI] called for the Senate to pass, under unanimous consent, the “Americans Want to Work Act.” The bill would add a fifth tier of unemployment insurance benefits in states with unemployment rates above 7.5%. The fifth tier would give an additional 20 weeks of benefits to unemployed people who have exhausted all of their available unemployment insurance benefits and have not yet found a job. Estimates differ on how many people would quialify for a fifth tier of benefits, but it’s generally believed to be somewhere around 2 million.

Josh at Senatus, caught the action on the Senate floor:

Senator George LeMieux (R-FL) objected to an attempt by Senator Stabenow to unanimously pass this bill. He said Republican members were unclear as to how much the legislation would cost and how it would be paid for. Senator Stabenow said these unemployment provisions constituted emergency spending.

According to observers on Twitter, LeMieux also claimed that he had “just been handed” the bill and needed more time to review it. The bill has been publicly available for review since August 4th. The unemployment rate in Florida right now is 11.6%; you would think LeMieux would have though to take a look at it by now.

In order to overcome LeMieux’s objection to doing this under unanimous consent, the Democrats would have to put together a cloture petition, file for cloture, wait for the cloture motion to ripen, invoke cloture with 60 votes… and then they would begin the actual debate. David Waldman has more detailed information on how that process works.

UPDATE: Here’s a direct link to video of the floor proceedings in which Stabenow motions to pass S.3706 under unanimous consent and LeMieux objects.

UPDATE 2: Better yet, here’s embeddable video from Stabenow’s YouTube account:





Like this post? Stay in touch by following us on Twitter, joining us on Facebook, or by Subscribing with RSS.
Tier V unemployment 99ers Debbie Stabenow George LeMieux
 

Comments

Displaying 61-62 of 62 total comments.

  • Kerlynne 10/18/2010 11:13am
    Link Reply
    + 0
    ↓

    Unemployment is mistaken for welfare? I want to stay off welfare!!! I want to work, I try and every day in one form or another!! You are a damn fool if you think that one person that is a 99er or is unemployed for any length of time is mistaking UI for welfare. The fact that is where most of will end up if don’t get a job is sickening. Think then….how many 100’s of thousands will end up on welfare and then where will the economy be A full blown depression!? It is bad enough that the people that I knew that still have jobs treat me like a disease and with pathic looks and hand outs that I have unfortunately take because I need things to continue this drastically reduced lifestyle I continue with. I EARNED these unemployment payments and when the government recognizes our plight and extends our earned UI because WE EARNED IT I will continue to take it, because I don’t want to go on welfare EVER.

  • Jess01869 10/26/2010 1:49pm
    Link Reply
    + 0
    ↓

    I think they should extend the deadline for those who run out after the November 28th deadline or extend it through the new year AND create a Tier 5 for the 99ers. I myself make my final payment request for just $25 on December 5th because $61 was added to my account for some bizarre reason (was not there 4 weeks ago) preventing me from exhausting my benefits before November 28th…so I am 7 days shy of the deadline and yes…only $25 left…wish they could at least divide that amount into my next 2 payment requests before the deadline…makes no sense and I’m about to be homeless unless that deadline does get extended…which I doubt even will…


Get Blog Updates by Email

Delivered by FeedBurner

Demand Question Time!



Find us at

Want a simple way to stay on top of what's happening in Congress?

Subscribe to this blog!

Send Us a Tip

You can submit a tip anonymously, or attributed to your own name and e-mail, whichever you prefer. Read more about submitting a tip.

Submit a tip




Recent Posts

Archives

See All Archives

Blogroll


See our Twitter List

Congress Watchers

OpenCongress is a free and open-source project of the Participatory Politics Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with a mission to increase civic engagement. The non-profit Sunlight Foundation is the Founding and Primary Supporter of OpenCongress.