Extension of jobless aid clears GOP roadblock

April 13, 2010 at 12:16a.m.

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Democrats in the Senate won an initial skirmish Monday to restore unemployment benefits to hundreds of thousands of jobless people despite Republican criticism that it would add $9 billion to the nation’s debt.

The 60-34 vote killed a GOP filibuster against debating the measure, which would extend jobless benefits through May 5 along with short-term extensions of several other lapsed programs.

Senators in both parties blamed each other for allowing the programs to lapse last week, leaving several hundred thousand people who have been out of work for more than six months without federally financed benefits averaging $335 a week.

Republicans blocked the measure last month. Monday’s vote buys time while House-Senate talks continue on a far-larger measure to extend them through the end of the year.

At issue is unemployment compensation for more than 400,000 people whose benefits lapsed but who would have been eligible to reapply for additional weeks of compensation if the program’s authority had not ended April 5. More than 5 million people continue to receive the extended benefits, but 200,000 people each week stand to lose them if the impasse continues.

Several other programs also have lapsed, including federal flood insurance, higher Medicare payment rates for doctors and generous health-insurance subsidies for people who’ve lost their jobs.

In practice, the expiration of the programs means that the newly jobless aren’t eligible to sign up for health-insurance subsidies but that people currently covered under the so-called COBRA law retain the benefit. People living in flood plains can’t sign up for flood insurance, and the Medicare program has delayed payments to doctors rather than impose a 21 percent cut.

Monday’s vote was a good sign for Democrats who want to extend the benefits without cutting spending elsewhere in the government’s $3.7 trillion budget to pay for the program. But a more difficult vote on whether to waive budget rules looms as early as today.