House Blocks Jobless Aid Bill - Update

House leaders Monday night delayed their vote on a short-term payroll tax holiday, and in the process aired a rare repudiation of their GOP colleagues in the Senate.

Those colleagues -- 39 of them, including the Senate Republican leadership -- voted for a 2-month extension of the 2 percent tax break, then voted unanimously to recess until next year, apparently believing they had a deal the House would accept.

But the Tea Party-dominated House rebelled, and after first saying it would vote down the Senate plan Monday night, delayed the vote until Tuesday and set it up using procedures that guarantee the bill cannot go straight to the president's desk for signature.

House Republicans tonight are expected to reject a bipartisan Senate compromise that extends unemployment insurance (UI) benefits for the long-term jobless and also extends the payroll tax cut for workers and employers. Without House approval, the UI benefits and tax cut expire Dec. 31.

Call House Speaker John Boehner at 202-225-0600. Tell him to stop playing politics with the lives of working familes–pass the Senate’s bipartisan bill to extend unemployment aid and middle-class tax cuts now.

The House voted 229 to 193 to disagree with the Senate bill, a procedural motion that denied lawmakers an up-or-down vote on the legislation. The motion refers the legislation to a conference committee for negotiation.

There is little indication that Democrats are willing to appoint conferees to participate in the negotiations. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has said he would not bring the Senate back into session, and he has not backed off that position yet.

December 20, 2011


Dear Friend,

It’s not every day that you see Republicans and Democrats coming together in Washington to pass important bills to put our country back on the right track. But last week, 89 United States Senators from both sides of the aisle voted in favor of a bipartisan agreement to extend the middle class tax cut and unemployment benefits, along with protecting health care access for Medicare beneficiaries, before they expire on January 1st.

But now, with less than two weeks to go before these important measures expire, House Republicans led by the Tea Party have refused to hold an up or down vote on the Senate bill. The failure to pass this bill will have very real consequences for Rhode Island families – an estimated 600,000 Rhode Islanders will see their taxes go up, more than 11,000 people in our state will lose their unemployment benefits, and Medicare reimbursement rates for doctors will be cut by 27%.

The Republican House leadership has said that they are doing “the right thing for the American people.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Republican obstructionism is threatening to slow our economic recovery and take a disastrous toll on families throughout Rhode Island and our country who have already gone through so much.

I’m going to keep fighting so this does not happen. American families deserve real solutions, not more of the same Washington games that got us into this mess to begin with. That’s why Congress must continue to work to protect the middle class from an unnecessary tax hike and ensure that the unemployed are not left behind.

Warm regards,

David N. Cicilline