Take yourself back in time 22 days: Bunning's continued craziness makes even Republicans squirm.
Yes, Jim Bunning has been continuously objecting to unanimous consent requests from Democrats that the temporary emergency extension be passed by unanimous consent, because he demands there be a debate on the spending.
They finally forced Bunning to blink, after the deadline and after tremendous hassles for states, for employers, and for the millions of Americans for whom unemployment insurance is the only thing allowing them to hang on. But he only blinked on a 30 day extension, which means we could be right back there. (Yes, they did pass a jobs bill on March 10 that would extend benefits through the year, but the problem is that that bill was modifying a larger House proposal, so it had to go back to the House..., you know the drill.)
Anyway, back to today.
On Monday, Democrats said they expected to ask for "unanimous consent" to move forward with a temporary extension of stimulus bill provisions that give laid-off workers up to 53 additional weeks of federally-funded unemployment benefits and also subsidized health insurance.
The request won't happen on Monday after all, as Senate Democrats are instead moving forward with the reconciliation package sent from the House of Representatives to improve the health insurance reform measure signed into law by President Obama. It's not clear how long the process will take -- a procedural vote Tuesday marked the beginning of 20 hours of debate, which will end around 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday if the Senate pulls an all-nighter. And when time is up, Republicans are expected to offer a flurry of amendments....
Republicans have not said whether they would object to such a request this week, but on Tuesday, Republican Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) laid the groundwork to introduce a version of the same temporary extension -- only with an offset to prevent deficit spending. It's not clear where this offset comes from, but Democrats flatly rejected Bunning's earlier proposal to pay for the measure with unspent stimulus funds. That Republicans have their own version of the extension suggests they're not amenable to granting unanimous consent for the Democrats' version.
The Senate adjourns for two weeks on Friday. If it doesn't pass an extension before then, laid off workers will lose eligibility for those extra "tiers" of federally funded "Emergency Unemployment Compensation" on April 6, along with subsidized COBRA health insurance, while the Senate is away. The National Flood Insurance program and boosted Medicaid funding will also lapse. The parties are basically playing a game of chicken with the deadline.
Now, if we've learned anything over the past year it's that time management with the rules of the Senate, and with these Republicans, is more than a nightmare. But there cannot be another repeat of the Bunning debacle of earlier this month, and the Senate has to act on this before they leave for Easter Recess.
The break can wait. They can do both health reform reconciliation AND unemployment insurance extension votes, and must. If it means they have to stay in DC until it's done, they have to. If it means they have to stay in session all night all week, so be it.