Unemployment Benefits Extension Vote Set for Tuesday - Blog - OpenCongress

For the past three weeks, Democrats in the Senate have been trying to quickly pass an extension of unemployment benefits for the growing number of long-term unemployed Americans, only to have their bill blocked each time by the Republicans. Earlier this week, Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid [D, NV] filed for cloture on the bill in an attempt to overcome the Republican-led opposition and move the bill forward towards becoming law. The vote on cloture, which will require 60 votes to pass and will put every member of the Senate down on record, is scheduled for Tuesday.

“On an issue like this that should transcend party labels, we had high hopes that Senate Republicans would stand with us. But the disturbing Republican trend of stonewalling any progress continues,” Reid said in a statement after scheduling the vote.

According to the National Employment Law Project, 400,000 unemployed Americans exhausted their unemployment benefits in September and another 200,000 will do so by the end of October. That averages out to 7,000 people per day reaching the end of their benefits in the face of an increasingly bleak job market.

via www.opencongress.org