Senate OKs bill on jobless benefits

Republican group asks Boehner to allow House vote

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., left, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., center, and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., head to the chamber during the vote on restoring jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed, legislation that expired late last year, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, April 7, 2014. With their 17-day spring break beckoning at the end of the week, House and Senate lawmakers will have to scramble to reach agreement. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., left, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., center, and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., head to the chamber during the vote on restoring jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed, legislation that expired late last year, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, April 7, 2014. With their 17-day spring break beckoning at the end of the week, House and Senate lawmakers will have to scramble to reach agreement. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON - The Senate voted 59-38 Monday to resurrect federal jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed, and a small band of Republican supporters swiftly appealed to a reluctant Speaker of the House John Boehner to permit election-year action in the House as well.

Steps are needed “to restore unemployment benefits to struggling Americans,” seven House Republicans wrote Boehner, R-Ohio, and Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va. They released their letter as the Senate was bestowing its widely expected approval on the legislation.

Despite the appeal, the bill’s House prospects are seen as cloudy at best, given widespread opposition among conservative lawmakers and outside groups and Boehner’s unwillingness to allow it to the floor without changes that Republicans say would enhance job creation.

The Senate vote, seven months before congressional elections, capped a three-month effort. Fifty-one Democrats, two independents and six Republicans voted for approval.

Sen. Mark Pryor, D.-Ark., voted for the measure, while Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., voted against it.

The bill was the first major piece of legislation that Democrats sent to the floor of the Senate when Congress convened early in the year.

In the months since, the Democrats have alternately attacked Republicans for holding up its passage and made concessions in an effort to gain support from enough GOP lawmakers to overcome a filibuster. Chief among those concessions was an agreement to pay the $9.6 billion cost of the five-month bill by making spending cuts elsewhere in the budget.

The White House-backed measure would retroactively restore benefits that were cut off in late December and maintain them through the end of May. Officials say as many as 2.7 million jobless workers have been denied assistance since the law expired late last year. If renewed, the aid would total about $256 weekly, and in most cases goto men and women who have been off the job for longer than six months.

Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Dean Heller, R-Nev., the bill’s leading supporters, said they were willing to consider changes in hopes of securing passage in a highly reluctant House.

Heller also said he was seeking a meeting with Boehner to discuss the measure.

Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner, noted that the speaker had said months ago “we are willing to look at extending emergency unemployment insurance as long as it includes provisions to help create more private sector jobs - but last week, Senate Democratic leaders ruled out adding any jobs measures at all.”

That was an apparent reference to a refusal by Senate Democrats to permit a vote on a Republican proposal that would have allowed construction of the proposed Keystone oil pipeline from Canada and made numerous changes in the nation’s health-care law.

GOP lawmakers say all of the proposals would help create jobs.

In remarks on the Senate floor before the vote, Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., directly criticized Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada for refusing to allow votes on GOP-drafted proposals to amend the measure. He called that a “black mark” in the Senate’s history.

Next up in the Democratic attempt to gain ground during the election year will be a proposal to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour from $7.25.

The drive to renew the lapsed jobless-benefits program comes as joblessness nationally is slowly receding, yet long-term unemployment is at or above pre-recession levels in much of the country. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it accounts for an estimated one-third or more of all jobless individuals.

In a study last summer, the Urban Institute reported that “relative to currently employed workers, the long-term unemployed tend to be less educated and are more likely to be nonwhite, unmarried, disabled, impoverished and to have worked previously in the construction industry and construction occupations.”

Also on Monday, House Democrats unveiled their response to Rep. Paul Ryan’s GOP budget, and it relies on $1.5 trillion in higher taxes over the coming 10 years and the economic benefits of immigration overhaul in order to work.

The plan by Maryland Democrat Chris Van Hollen counts on hundreds of billions of dollars in tax revenue from an influx of immigrant workers to help reduce deficits to the $600 billion range by 2024.

The measure also embraces President Barack Obama’s call for additional infrastructure spending, early childhood education and the jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed.

Ryan’s plan manages to eke out a balanced budget by 2024 by repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s coverage provisions and cutting spending across a wide swath of the federal budget.

Both plans face votes this week, with the Wisconsin Republican’s budget on track to pass.

Van Hollen’s plan leaves in place so-called Obamacare and the current Medicare system, whereas Ryan would repeal the law’s benefits and set in motion a dramatic overhaul of Medicare for future retirees who are now 55 or younger.

Information for this article was contributed by Andrew Taylor of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 4 on 04/08/2014

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