SENATE PANEL ADDS JOBLESS BENEFITS EXTENSION TO BUSH WAR FUNDING BILL

Friday, May 9, 2008

(PAI)SENATE PANEL ADDS JOBLESS BENEFITS EXTENSION TO BUSH WAR FUNDING BILL

    WASHINGTON (PAI)--Throwing down the gauntlet against
anti-worker GOP President George W. Bush, the
Democratic-run Senate Appropriations Committee passed
a measure extending federal jobless benefits to 39
weeks in most states--and 52 in a few--up from the
present 26 weeks. The panel added the benefits, and
money to pay for them, to Bush’s Iraq War funding
bill.

    Organized labor strongly supports the jobless
benefits extension. It is the centerpiece of the
second stimulus package that union leaders and
congressional Democratic leaders agreed upon last
month. But Bush has vowed to veto any war funding
bill that has extra provisions in it for domestic
spending.

    Appropriations Committee member Tom Harkin (D-Iowa),
who chairs the panel’s subcommittee that doles out
money for labor programs, as well as health and human
services spending, announced the move after the May 8
vote.

    “We are now spending $16 million an hour in Iraq
while our economy struggles and American families feel
the pain,” said Harkin. “I believe we have a
responsibility to also take care of the needs in our
own backyards. With this funding package we can give
our own country an economic boost,” through the
jobless benefits extension. Extending jobless
benefits would cost an estimated $15.6 billion over
the next decade.

    Other provisions in the Senate panel’s version of the
stimulus package would “bolster our investment in
life-saving research and keep drugs and crime off our
streets,” he added. “While the president may insist
on pouring American tax dollars into his war in Iraq,
I will continue to fight for investments that will
strengthen our communities and our economy here at
home.”

   The second stimulus package would provide money to
extend unemployment benefits by 13 weeks for all
workers nationwide, plus an additional 13 weeks for
workers in high-unemployment states such as Michigan.
Harkin said extending unemployment benefits now would
“provide an immediate boost for the economy, and at
the same time, help families weather the storm.

    “Economists agree that extending unemployment
benefits is a powerful, cost-effective way to
stimulate the economy—every dollar spent on benefits
leads to $1.64 in economic growth,” he added.

    While the second stimulus package was easily attached
to the war money bill in the Senate panel, the
situation in the House is uncertain. There,
congressional Democratic leaders split the war money
bill into three parts for separate votes: One on
dollars for the war itself, another on war-making
policy--such as banning use of the
war funds for torture--and a third containing the
domestic stimulus programs, including the jobless
benefits.

    The catch is that fiscally conservative Democrats,
many of them representing districts Bush carried in
2004, threaten to vote against the third section
unless money is cut elsewhere to offset its costs.
With the House GOP dead set against extending jobless
benefits--Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) calls
them “unnecessary extra spending”--the Democrats’
opposition could be enough to sink the benefits.
House Democratic leaders are scrambling for the needed
votes.
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