Camp blasts Democrats for missed opportunity on unemployment

Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), the ranking member on the House Ways and Means Committee, blasted House Democratic leaders for advancing an extension to unemployment insurance that has no chance of passing the Senate because its cost is not offset. 

"If Democrats would just agree to pay for this spending, hundreds of thousands of unemployed Americans would be receiving the benefits they need to help put food on the table," Camp said shortly after Thursday's vote. 

By a 270-153 vote, the House extended unemployment benefits through November. Its $34 billion cost is not offset. 

The vote was largely symbolic since the Senate has already adjourned for the July 4 recess. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) has failed several times to extend the program because its cost was not offset. He will try again after the recess when a replacement has been named for Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), who died earlier this week.

Camp today offered a way to pay for the extension by using unspent stimulus funds, a tactic also employed by Senate Republicans. Democrats in both chambers have resisted this offer even though House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) signaled he could support using the funds as an offset. 

"I personally believe that if we have dollars that are not yet expended in the Recovery Act ... I think we ought to do that," Hoyer recently told ABC's This Week.

Reid on Wednesday adamantly refuted the idea that unused stimulus dollars should be used to extend benefits.

"These people don't know what they are talking about," he told reporters, adding, "These are monies that are creating jobs." 

After today's House vote, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) criticized Republicans for repeatedly opposing an extension to benefits. 

"Today, the House voted once again to extend a lifeline to millions of Americans who lost their jobs through no fault of their own, while Republicans continued to say no," she said in prepared remarks. "It is past time for congressional Republicans to stop standing in the way of relief for our families and start standing up for our middle class."

At the vote, 29 Republicans supported the measure while 11 Democrats opposed it.