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A New Bill for 99ers, But Is It Too Late?
December 19, 2010 - by Donny Shaw
With very few days left in the 111th session of Congress, Rep. Barbara Lee [D, CA-9] and Rep. Bobby Scott [D, VA-3], both members of the Congressional Black Caucus, have introduced new legislation to provide relief to unemployed workers who have exhausted all available insurance benefits and are still unemployed (i.e. the “99ers”). The bill, H.R. 6556, would not add a fifth tier of federal benefits. Instead, it would extend the length of the first tier of benefits from 20 weeks to 34 weeks and allow 99ers to collect the additional 14 weeks retroactively.
The introduction of this bill is not necessarily a sign of progress for getting relief for 99ers from Congress. Any member of Congress can introduce any bill they want on any topic. They don’t need approval from party leadership. They simply draft a bill, drop it in a box, and it’s considered pending before Congress. The real work is advocacy. Members who are serious about their bills lobby their colleagues to become co-sponsors, push their bills in committee hearings and floor speeches, and support the work of grassroots groups that are fighting for the same cause.
It’s unclear if Reps. Lee and Scott are serious about getting this passed, but even if they are, the bill faces enormous odds.
Right now, it appears that the Congress is planning to adjourn the session on Wednesday. It’s possible for them to come back after Christmas, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid [D, NV] has said that he is willing to stay in session until Jan. 5th if necessary, but, unless they fail to resolve any items this week that they consider “must-pass,” it’s unlikely.
Normally, bills are approved by committees before they get a vote on the floor. Given the time constraints, that’s clearly not possible with this bill. The only way for this to move in the legislative process at this point would be for the House Rules Committee to decide it is a privileged matter that should be put on the House calendar directly without prior committee approval. The Rules Committee is closely connected to the House leadership and generally considered an extension of the Speaker of the House, so this is really in the hands of Rep. Nancy Pelosi [D, CA-8]. To date, Pelosi has never specifically advocated for or pushed legislation to help people who have exhausted their unemployment benefits.
Ninety percent of bills die in the committees they were referred to upon introduction, and that’s the most likely outcome for this bill. But let’s imagine for a second what’s likely to happen if somehow that’s not the case.
If the bill gets to the House floor, it’s possible that it could be supported by a majority and passed. The House hasn’t been the chamber delaying unemployment benefits extensions these pays few years, it’s always been the Senate. Republicans in the Senate have consistently filibustered extensions of the filing deadline for the existing 99 weeks of unemployment benefits because they think they should be offset with corresponding spending cuts. According to the information posted by Rep. Scott, this bill does not include an offset. There’s no reason to think the Republicans’ position would be any different with this bill. In fact, it could be worse. Some Republicans have subscribed to the theory that unemployment benefits discourage people from looking for new jobs, so their opposition to adding additional weeks might be stronger than it is for just extending the filing deadline for the current level of weeks. Senate Democrats would need at least two Republicans to vote with them to break a filibuster on this bill. Without an offset, there’s no way that would happen.
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Comments
Displaying 31-41 of 41 total comments.
that is the “senate” to adjourn… The Congress could be called back in… for it is usually the one to first offer a bill.
Gibbs response regarding the 99er’s was infuriating! What, are we supposed to do while we wait for this magical job creation? Hasn’t, job creation been in the works for how long now?
“to 99ers, POTUS extended to 99 wks many have gone past that – we must get econ growing faster to create more jobs 4 u and help”
“8:52 AM Dec 24th via web
Retweeted by 13 people
PressSec
Robert Gibbs (EOP)”
http://twitter.com/PressSec/status/18348336083902464
This is Obama’s press secretary, at least he seams to know we exist now.
if anyone has twitter please retweet this, there are only 13 retweets at this momen, it needs to be in the thousands to get recognition.
Mike Colliss over at all247news pulls no punches on what he thinks of the bill http://all247news.com/?p=9039 “Bluntly put, it seems almost certain that, given the intention of the House to adjourn by Wednesday at the very latest there simply is not enough time for Representative Lee’s bill to be considered.”
The silence is erie. As of 11:24 a.m. (CST) there is no new information on H.R. 6556 on the internet. I hope that all of the hype yesterday wasn’t any early April fool’s joke.
they did the same thing right before thanks giving with 3706, they do this just so people will not bug them during their vacation. They do not want people protesting in front of their houses on Christmas. We would have been protesting in front of their homes on thanksgiving had 3706 not been introduced, can they fool us twice?
Just a game to them. They think we are stupid
Check out INFOWARSdotCom and listen to the daily show on your computer, just click on the: listen now or windows media on the top right hand of the page for a nonpartisan,secular talk radio show that is not big corporate main stream media propaganda.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL MY FELLOW 99ERS. HERE’S A NEW PAPER TO FOLLOW AND BLOG ON . PLEASE GO TO ALL247NEWS.COM. THE ARTICLES ARE GREAT AND MANY NEW IDEAS ON HOW TO UNITE TO FIGHT AND GET NOTICED BY THE MEDIA AND TO EDUCATE THE MASSES ON THE 99ERS. HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE AS WELL AS HERE. GOD BLESS AND LET US ALL CONTINUE TO FIGHT FOR OUR COUNTRY.
Not fair… Immigration Reform has nothing to do with this…
I am as American as you are, came to this country with my parents when I was 14 in 1971 LEGALLY AS A RESIDENT, grew up and went to High School and College in NYC. I speak fluent Spanish and Italian and still cannot get a job. 2 years ago both my husband and my son lost their jobs… They are now 99ers.. No more benefits, but still have to pay student loans, car payments… Our home is in Foreclosure and our 800+ credit score may not even be half of that now…
For the first time in my life I applied for Food Stamps.. I never in my worst nightmares thought we would come to this… Yet, here we are…
People will not even look at my resume, as soon as they see the year I graduated they know I am over 50 and I also get the “overqualified” BS, that is if I even get an answer…
I said a prayer for you and I know it will all work out.=)
The exstention that Obama signed did nothing for these people. It only allowed recently laid off workers to continue past the regular deadline. I in no way think trading these hostages for a tax break for the rich was a good thing as a matter of fact it was an obvious ploy to keep all of Americans temper down against the rich tax break witch threw our national debt even further to the extreme ringer.
75 percent of Americans do not even vote even as registered voters.
I hope this is a wake up call for people in this country to vote, because as you see there are villains in congress that finally 10 or so years ago passed a bill to allow 10,000 factory jobs to move over seas under the bush administration. Bushes comment on this was they couldn’t find people to do these jobs butt C’mon, you know the truth. The truth is he couldn’t find people in America willing to work for 50 cents an hour. Many of these so called 99ers have been working any where from 5 to 45 years.