Snowe, Collins join Dems to close debate on benefits in 60-40 vote

By Vicki Needham - 07/20/10 07:07 PM ET

The Senate voted Tuesday to proceed to a final vote on an extension of unemployment benefits that had been stuck in the chamber for six weeks.

The 60-33 vote came after Sen. Carte Goodwin (D-W.Va.) was sworn in to replace the late Sen. Robert Byrd (D), which gave Democrats the 60 votes they needed to move to a final vote.

The vote triggers 30 hours of debate before a final vote on the measure, but it was unclear at press time whether Republicans would demand that the Senate use all 30 hours.

Two Republicans, Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, supported moving to a final vote on the extension of benefits, which would run through November. Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.) was the only Democrat to oppose the extension.

The legislation will provide retroactive benefits to more than 2.5 million people whose unemployment insurance expired.

The House is expected to approve the measure later this week, but the timing of a vote will depend on when the Senate takes final action. It would then be sent to President Obama, who blasted Senate Republicans on Monday for holding up the legislation.

There was little drama to Tuesday’s vote. Collins and Snowe had agreed to back the bill before the July 4 recess.

Still, Democrats and Republicans continued their verbal sparring over the measure, with the GOP on Tuesday urging lawmakers to pass the $34 billion bill with offsetting spending cuts that would pay for its cost.

“The fact is, this debate isn’t about unemployment insurance,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on the floor this morning. “There’s no debate in the Senate about whether we should pass a bill. Everyone agrees that we should. This debate is about whether in extending these benefits we should add to the debt or not.”

Democrats have countered that the bill should be considered as emergency spending and shouldn’t be paid for because of the high rate of unemployment, currently at 9.5 percent. Democrats also have said the benefits create economic stimulus because those receiving them spend them quickly.

At a press conference after the cloture vote, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) hit Republicans for holding up the funding.

He said it shouldn’t have taken a supermajority of 60 votes “to help families afford the bare necessities while unemployment is rising. It shouldn’t take the slimmest of margins to do what is right.”

This story was posted at 3:14 and updated at 4:57 p.m., 5:28 p.m. and 7:06 p.m.