Unemployment Update: Senate passes Defense Bill – includes extension of eligibility for UE emergency bens and extends eligibility and duration of COBRA subsidy
I am strenuously ignoring what is happening on the Hill today with HCR. Politico has the Dem ‘Highlight’ document up and it proudly announces CHILDREN will be exempt from pre existing condition limits in the bill, which of course means ADULTS are not. What a POS this thing is. Anyway. Happy talk dammit! The Senate managed to do something good on health care, and it is NOT in this POS bill. It was attached to the Defense Bill, a COBRA extension.
The bill contained the Patriot Act renewal so the lamestream media, in their constant attempts to ‘protect’ O from anything they view as negative, is not reporting all the details of what was in the bill.
They actually extended the COBRA subsidy, as the House did earlier in the week.
…The legislation makes some key changes to programs which were set to expire. For instance:
•The congressional stimulus bill passed in February created a program that paid 65% of monthly insurance premiums for people who lost their employer-based health care coverage because they were laid off. But that program was only open to people who lost their jobs – and their coverage – by the end of 2009. The new bill extends that eligibility deadline by two months, until the end of February 2010.
•It also adds six months to what was a 9-month period that the federal government would make the 65% of payments through the COBRA health plan, extending the period of payments to 15 months.
•The legislation also extends the deadline to qualify for additional unemployment benefits. Last month, Congress passed legislation adding 14 more weeks of emergency benefits – and six more on top of that for people in hard-hit states like Michigan. But they were only available to people exhausting all their other unemployment benefits by the end of December. The new bill extends that deadline to the end of February.
•It also maintains 2009 federal poverty guidelines – which if reset could have moved some people off food stamps and Medicaid – and adds additional funding to the food stamp program.
•Finally, the legislation authorizes the Small Business Association to continue programs to make loans more attractive to borrowers and lenders, in order to free up credit for businesses…
Unemployment Update: House passes COBRA Subsidy Extension…
Finally!!!! Now we need action in the Senate. It feels like the first time the House has done something for the real people doesn’t it?? How about some Lou Gramm Foreigner-Unplugged
The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation Wednesday, December 16, that would extend the federal subsidy of COBRA health insurance premiums for employees who are involuntarily terminated.Embedded in H.R. 3326, a measure appropriating funds for the Department of Defense, the nine-month, 65 percent premium subsidy would be extended by six months to a total of 15 months. It would apply to those who lose their jobs through February 28, 2010. Under current law, employees who lose their jobs after December 31 are ineligible for the subsidy.
The measure, approved on 395-34 vote, also would provide an additional six months of subsidized coverage for beneficiaries whose nine-month COBRA premium subsidy has run out.
In addition, the legislation would give beneficiaries whose subsidy ran out and who didn’t pay the full premium a second chance to opt for coverage. For example, a beneficiary whose nine months of subsidized coverage ran out November 30 and who didn’t pay the regular unsubsidized December premium could pay the 35 percent premium share in January and receive coverage for December.
The House is also expected to take up another appropriations bill, H.R. 2847, with a provision that would extend the premium subsidy to those who lose their jobs through June 30, 2010.
More on COBRA and other available resources for those who may have lost it, are losing it awaiting the Senate to take action, or cannot afford it courtesy of the WSJ:
…a companion bill has been introduced in the Senate that also would extend the Cobra subsidy for six months, up to a total of 15 months, and increase the subsidy to 75%. But it’s not known if the legislation will pass or even come to a vote….
…Many unemployed workers who first started receiving the Cobra subsidy in March lost it as of Nov. 30, and many more will start losing the subsidy this month. Workers whose Cobra eligibility begins on or after Jan. 1, 2010 won’t get the subsidy even if they’re terminated by Dec. 31, unless Congress extends the law (UPDATE from MiM: HOUSE has extended, waiting on Senate)
CONTINUES AFTER THE BREAK:
Update 5: Bill signed. Procedural vote now scheduled for Nov 2; Looks like no UE vote until next week; COBRA subsidy Extension? Unemployment Extension Update: Reid still wrangling on amendments..
Update: Bill finally signed! see here
Update 4: 11/2 New thread up to follow the UE vote here
Update 3: Reid has put off the vote as expected to next week. Vote to close debate now scheduled for Nov 2nd (CQ Politics):
The extension and expansion of a tax credit for first-time homebuyers has been incorporated into Senate legislation that would extend unemployment benefits.
The Senate will hold a procedural vote on the legislation on Nov. 2. A vote on final passage of the entire package probably will happen by the end of next week.
The underlying bill on unemployment benefits had been held up by disagreements among Senate leaders about how to handle amendments.
…Reid offered a time agreement that would have allowed for consideration of two Republican amendments aimed at funding the unemployment benefit extension using TARP funds and increasing oversight of the bailout. But no amendments will be taken up next week, a spokesman for Reid said Friday….
Twofer Tuesday: Hey Congress/TOTUS- What have you done for us lately, ain’t nothin goin on but the rent!
M’kay Congress and Nobel prize winning TOTUS, WHERE ARE THE JOBS?!?!?!?!?
Stop frakking about with everything BUT JOBS (and the war in Afghanistan)!
Ain’t NOTHING GOING ON BUT THE RENT! (and the war which TOTUS is voting present on)
WOTS is the delay in the UE extension is because Reid and Isaakson want to extend the homebuyers tax credit and HUD chief Donovan and the WH are stalling on that (Donovan just testified yesterday that the tax credit is very expensive but the WH is ‘looking at it’. How nice. meanwhile the bill is stalled and people are losing their UE and it isnt retroactive) JOBS JOBS JOBS JOBS ARE JOB ONE!
Courtesy of nostalgiagold
What have you done for the American people lately Congress??? Besides ignore us I mean…
Courtesy of seminole06
Update: GOP proposes amendments for housing tax credit and Dems Johanns and Nelson propose amendment banning ACORN from any federal funding; Unemployment Update: Extension still stalled in the Senate…
10/23 See Update https://moderateinthemiddle.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/unemployment-update-senate-cloture-vote-on-unemployment-extension-next-tuesday/
Update: The Hill:
(…)Since early October, Senate Democrats have been looking to quickly push through a bill that would extend jobless benefits by at least 14 weeks. But Republicans have blocked the immediate consideration of the bill on the Senate floor, objecting because the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has yet to score it and because a voice vote would preclude GOP amendments….
…Republicans said that a quick vote on the bill would have precluded Isakson’s amendment and others that have bipartisan support. Nebraska Sens. Mike Johanns (R) and Ben Nelson (D) are pushing for an amendment banning all federal funding for ACORN.
Senate Republican Whip Jon Kyl (Ariz.) dismissed Democratic suggestions that Republicans are the “party of no” for holding back support on the bill.
“I think when all is said and done, you’ll see a lot of support for unemployment extension. That’s not the issue,” Kyl told reporters. “The question is how you pay for it. The question is what is the score for it, and whether some other amendments will be allowed.”
Democrats plan to find the extra revenue by extending by 18 months the federal employment surtax, paid by employers and set to expire at the end of the year. The CBO expects the extension of jobless benefits to cost approximately $2.4 billion, according to a Democratic aide.
GOP senators, hoping to avoid a tax extension, are planning amendments that would pay for the prolonged jobless benefits by using bailout or stimulus money, according to a Senate Republican aide.
The Indpendent reports an E Verify amendment is also coming to the floor:
(…)The stalling of legislation to expand unemployment insurance (UI) has little to do with the benefit itself. First, there’s a push to attach an extended homebuyer tax credit to the bill — something the Obama administration is wary of.
But also there’s this: Republicans are hoping to attach a number of amendments related to ACORN and immigration — provisions that have delayed floor action on the UI bill indefinitely, according to the offices of both Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
The agreement ends after that.
The Republican amendments include at least two provisions related to ACORN; one related to the E-Verify program; one to pay for the UI benefits with unspent stimulus money; and one providing tax relief….
Update: Courtesy of James McConnell at the Chicago Economic Policy Examiner:
Democratic politicians will hold a press conference Tuesday to blast Republican politicians for holding up legislation to extend unemployment benefits another 14 weeks for the nation’s out of work citizens. Elected representatives in both houses of Congress have agreed on the details of a bill and apparently have the votes to pass it, but Republicans blocked passage by unanimous consent, and continue to offer what Democrats characterize as unrelated amendments…
Update: Deficit for FY 2009 to hit $1.4 trillion, another record: Congress faces hurdles in push for second stimulus…
Update: TOTUS voted against raising the debt ceiling as a Senator. The hypocrisy continues unabated
Another record deficit projection from CBO. Can’t we send TOTUS to the IMF and he can withdraw us from all foreign subsidy obligations the way he does with our defense agreements? I can see it now:
Of course, they are not letting this stop them from adding the ginormous healthcare entitlement to the economy but they appear wobbly on a jobs bill now, figures.
Democratic leaders pressed President Barack Obama on Wednesday to extend more elements of the existing economic-stimulus package, and to possibly add tax cuts that were rejected the first time around, despite a record budget deficit that is giving some lawmakers pause.
On Wednesday, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the federal deficit for fiscal 2009 will be $1.4 trillion…The figure remains the largest budget deficit, measured as a percentage of gross domestic product, since World War II. That so far isn’t stopping Democratic leaders discussing further stimulus measures.
Worried that the economy isn’t creating jobs, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) went to the White House for a hastily planned meeting. White House economists had already embraced extending enhanced unemployment-insurance benefits and subsidies for the purchase of health insurance under Cobra. Both of those measures are currently set to expire Dec. 31.
After the meeting, Mr. Reid made it clear he also wants an extension of a generous tax credit for first-time homebuyers, something the White House was leaning against as too expensive for the number of jobs it might create(…) Go read the entire piece..
They are going to attempt a giant ROADS AND INFRASTRUCTURE BILL now, which is what they CLAIMED was in the giant spendulus package, guess Apollo Alliance didn’t have enough union jobs to warrant any real infrastructure when they wrote our stimulus bill. Frakkers.
Moderate in the Middle 