Progress Illinois

With the July 4 recess quickly approaching, Democrats in Washington are in overdrive trying to extend the filing deadline for emergency unemployment benefits. Last night, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) introduced his new bill, which would continue emergency benefits through November 30 and make payments retroactive to cover the 1.2 million job seekers whose benefits expired this month. He says the legislation is supported by Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both from Maine, leaving him just one vote shy of a filibuster-proof majority. If they can flip one more Republican, the chamber is expected to take up its cloture vote tomorrow night.

After a false start yesterday afternoon, the AP reports that the House is also hoping to take up its paired-down extension this evening. Their bill costs roughly $35 billion, or 1 percent of the $3.6 trillion federal budget. We will keep our eyes peeled and update the post with the latest congressional developments.

UPDATE (10:28 p.m.): For the third time this month, the Senate GOP blocked an extension of the filing deadline for emergency unemployment benefits. Democrats could not find one additional vote outside of Maine's two Republicans to break a filibuster and the measure was defeated 58-39. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) voted no so he could file a motion to reconsider.

We noted yesterday that leaders in the U.S. Senate starting building support for a standalone piece of legislation to extend the filing deadline for emergency unemployment benefits through November. A Senate Democratic leadership aide even told the Washington Independent that Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is working with members of the Republican caucus and hopes to move the $33 billion bill this week. But any reauthorization also requires the blessing of the House, which tried and failed today to muster the two-thirds majority needed to advance a companion bill (H.R. 5618).

How did the Illinois bloc vote? Illinois GOP Reps. Judy Biggert, Peter Roskam, John Shimkus and Democrat Melissa Bean all voted against the measure. Republicans Tim Johnson and Don Manzullo joined the rest of the Democratic delegation in support. (Reps. Mark Kirk, Bobby Rush, and Aaron Schock missed the roll call.) Here's a statement from Bean spokesperson Jonathan Lipman explaining her opposition:

“Congresswoman Bean supports a responsible expansion of unemployment to those who haven’t been eligible for the full benefit. However, the text of the bill was not made public before the vote and no legislative language was available on the floor despite the Congresswoman’s requests,  and she was uncomfortable with voting to approve a $34 billion bill without first seeing what she was voting on.”

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Sander Levin (D-MI) said House Dems would call the same bill tomorrow under regular procedures requiring a simple majority for passage.  Hopefully, Bean will get access to the legislative language before that vote. 

As expected, the Senate Republican caucus -- along with Democrat Ben Nelson (NE) -- stood firm today in their opposition to a jobs bill that would have extended the filing deadline on emergency unemployment benefits through November, voting 41-57 to block cloture on the legislation (H.R. 4213). Immediately following the roll call, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) submitted a motion to extend the filing deadline one additional month using a small portion of the funding identified in the bill.

That's when Illinois' own Sen. Dick Durbin unloaded on the minority party, suggesting that political posturing, rather than concern about the deficit, is driving their obstruction.  "The record is clear: It is a party of no that is hoping that the voters will vote yes in November," he said. "I hope they remember that the Republicans had no alternative [proposal] when it came to this disastrous economic situation." Watch it:

While a standalone bill extending the benefit deadline might surface next, the entire effort has been derailed for the time being.  As of tomorrow, the National Employment Law Project projects that 1.2 million Americans will have lost their unemployment aid as a result.

As the New York Times editorial board noted this morning, it's becoming more and more clear that the U.S. Senate is in no rush to extend the filing deadline on unemployment aid, even as hundreds of thousands of jobless workers lose their benefits each week. But that doesn't mean some in Congress aren't still trying to figure out a way to push the "extenders" bill through.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said yesterday that she planned to hold a bill to preserve Medicare reimbursements rates -- the so-called "doc fix" measure -- until the upper chamber acts on the jobs bill. As of yesterday, Senate negotiations were focused on swaying Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. The two Maine Republicans are demanding that, in exchange for their vote, the Democrats curtail an extension of the enhanced Medicaid matching fund rate included in last year’s stimulus bill.

Here's the catch: Doing so would blow an estimate $230 million hole in Illinois' FY 2011 budget. (As in numerous other states, lawmakers anticipated receiving the extra Medicaid funds when drawing up the spending plan).  Taking it out would almost certainly mean more budget tightening (i.e., layoffs).  At a time when polls suggest Americans are more worried about jobs than the long-term deficit, that seems like a dumb move politically. But if Collins and Snowe are the only gettable votes from the GOP, it might be the Democrats' only option to keep the unemployed afloat.