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According to a Democratic Senate ticker, almost 200,000 Americans have lost their unemployment compensation insurance benefits in the past 26 days since GOP Senators have blocked a bill to extend unemployment insurance. That amounts to over 7000 per day and still ticking.
The House bill, called the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2009 (HR 3548), passed overwhelmingly on Sept. 22 by a 331-83 margin. The bill would extend jobless benefits to all states for 14 weeks, with an additional six weeks for states with more than 8.5 percent unemployment, and all without adding one penny to the deficit. The Senate version (S 1699) was introduced a day later and has since been stalled by bipartisan bickering.
With a popular bill that won a vote by margins of 331-83 in the House and 87-13 in the Senate, one may think it would be easy to get it passed. That, however, is not the case. Part of the democratic process in congress allows the minority party to slow down legislation in congress if they choose to exercise that right, and that is exactly what the GOP Senators are doing.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters in the Capitol today that GOP leaders are stalling intentionally in order to prevent other Democratic priorities from reaching the floor. “Even today they’re still stalling before we can pass this bill finally,” Reid said. “Perhaps Senate Republicans don’t think it matters to stall and delay, but it matters to the unemployed worker who so desperately needs this money.”