Senators reach deal extending jobless benefits

[Tx4obama]

Last edited Thu Mar 13, 2014, 08:06 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A bipartisan group of senators ended a long-running election-season standoff and struck a compromise that would extend jobless benefits for 2 million Americans who have been out of work the longest, the lawmakers said Thursday.

Should the Senate approve the election-year measure - as seemed likely - it would throw the issue to the Republican-run House. Its fate there was uncertain.

-snip-

Two leaders of the negotiations -Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Dean Heller, R-Nev. - said in a statement that the deal would be retroactive to the end of last year, when the emergency benefits program expired. Since then, the benefits have ended for roughly 2 million people.

-snip-

The deal would end jobless payments to people earning more than $1 million a year. The lawmakers cited 2010 IRS data showing that 0.03 percent of taxpayers earned over $1 million and received some form of federal or state unemployment benefits.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CONGRESS_UNEMPLOYMENT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-03-13-16-56-34

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Bipartisan Unemployment Insurance Deal Reached In Senate

WASHINGTON -- A bipartisan group of senators has reached a deal to extend federal long-term unemployment insurance for five months.

The deal, which comes after months of negotiations, would be distributed retroactively to when the benefits expired at the end of December. The cost of the extension, around $10 billion, would be fully offset by an accounting trick known as "pension smoothing," an extension of customs user fees through 2024, and an adjustment to payment procedures for single-employer pension plans.

Senate aides were cautiously optimistic about the bill's prospects. Several variations unemployment insurance legislation have come up for a vote in the past few months, only to fall short of breaking a Republican-led filibuster. Senate Democratic leaders need all of their members and five Republicans to join together to clear that hurdle. A Senate Republican aide told The Huffington Post that five Republicans currently back the new proposal: Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.).

Since federal unemployment insurance expired on Dec. 28, an estimated two million Americans have missed out on the benefits. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) had argued in favor of a one-year extension with its costs offsets or a three-month deal with no offsets. But the stalemate encouraged him to find a workaround. The proposal introduced on Thursday was the product of lengthy efforts from Portman, Heller, Collins and Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) to reach an agreement that would placate both parties.

-snip-

Full article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/13/unemployment-insurance-deal_n_4959365.html

[Mass]

1. This would be nice (even if it is too short), but it still would need to go through the House.

[onehandle]

6. What's too short? I didn't see any references a different length of time.

Emergency unemployment is 12 months beyond regular unemployment if memory serves.

Do you mean that should be longer?

[Mass]

7. It will last for 5 months, according to other sources (the Hill, WaPo)

WaPo

Here are the key details on the deal, as per a Senate Democratic leadership aide:
* Reauthorizes emergency unemployment insurance (UI) benefits for 5 months and allows for retroactive payments to eligible beneficiaries going back to December 28th.
* The proposal is fully paid-for using a combination of offsets that includes extending “pension smoothing” provisions from the 2012 highway bill (MAP-21), which were set to phase out this year, and extending customs user fees through 2024. The bill also includes an additional offset allowing single-employer pension plans to prepay their flat rate premiums to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC).
* Legislation includes a provision that ends federal unemployment insurance payments to any individual whose adjusted gross income in the preceding year was $1 million or more.
* Also includes language to strengthen reemployment and eligibility assessment (REA) and ReEmployment Services (RES) programs. In an effort to help get job seekers back into the workforce, individuals receiving emergency unemployment compensation will be eligible for enhanced, personalized assessments and referrals to reemployment services when they begin their 27th week of UI (Tier I) and 55th week of UI (Tier III).

The Hill

The Senate reached a bipartisan deal on Thursday that would renew unemployment benefits for five months.

[onehandle]

9. Ah. Fuck GOPNRAteahadists! nt

[okaawhatever]

21. considering it's back dated, i'd say they're adding an additional 8-9 months of payments. That

won't be eight or nine months from March, but at least the folks will get eight or nine months worth of payments.

[AlinPA]

19. Boehner and the teabaggers will kill it in the House.

[Faygo Kid]

2. House GOP hates the unemployed, but maybe . . .

. . . Fox News can position it as underlining the "poor economy" under Obama, and since bashing the President is the most important thing of all to the House GOP, it might stand a chance of going through.

Crappy argument, but if it provides help to those in need of it, I'm for whatever it takes, and happy to have my tax dollars go there.

[FloriTexan]

13. Thanks for that....

If this does pass, we'll be able to pay our taxes on the unemployment benefits from last year. I'd put the sarcasm tag in here but I'm serious.

[bluestateguy]

3. 20 bucks the deal falls apart before the Sunday monrning talk shows

Just watch.

[freshwest]

4. Put the Party of Nihilists who hate America in the House on record... n/t

[FloriTexan]

5. Please let this pass....

Question though, if they extend it for five more months and its retroactive to January 1, does the extension run from Jan. 1 or does it begin after this [hopefully] passes?

[Mass]

8. I was wondering the same thing.

[polmaven]

10. I was of the impression

that the 5 months will include the retroactive period, so 3 months is already used!

[FloriTexan]

12. So its due to expire almost as soon as it passes?!

so we can go through this again in a couple of months.

[onehandle]

22. Yep. Except the TeaHouse of Koch will probably only agree to 3 months.

So it expires now.

[jtuck004]

11. Seems like it was a lot easier to make the tax cuts for the wealthy permanent than this POS. n/t

[Bandit]

14. Oh No, the bill is going to end jobless payments for millionaires.

Whatever will those poor millionaires do?

[seveneyes]

15. Will this help people who lost jobs over a year ago?

It's hard to glean any details about just who this will help.

[Gothmog]

16. This is a step in the right direction

I hope that this bill will get a hearing in the House but I doubt it

[alp227]

17. K&R + permanent link

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/senators-reach-deal-extending-jobless-benefits

[DCBob]

18. I think it has a chance in the House.. the GOPers dont care about the unemployed but..

they do care how this plays out politically.

[adirondacker]

20. I'm not so sure...from the NY Times piece on this...

"By gaining Republican support in the Senate, Democrats hope to increase the pressure on House Republican leaders, highlighting fractures in a party offering differing policy solutions to poverty and income inequality.

Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky and a possible presidential candidate in 2016, has warned that the benefits are a narcotic for the unemployed, lulled by handouts away from seeking work. Groups like the political action committee Club for Growth and the Heritage Foundation’s political arm, Heritage Action, also warned Republicans against supporting the extension."

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/14/us/senate-reaches-deal-to-pay-for-jobless-aid.html?hp&_r=0&gwh=3484814F77BD3C1D3D78DD8E2FA174FA&gwt=regi