Conrad had been open about his ambivalence about running for another term and those doubts almost certainly increased following a 2010 election that decimated the Democratic party…

Outside interest groups — the conservative American Future Fund and liberal-aligned Commonsense Ten — have already run ads in North Dakota, suggesting that the race would be a major priority for both national parties.

His retirement is bad news for the Democrats — North and South Dakota has reliably voted Republican in presidential elections but elected Democrats to Congress until recently.

For the last eighteen years before the 2010 elections, North Dakota had two Democratic senators and one Democrat at the state’s lone seat in the House of Representatives — dubbed ‘Team North Dakota’ giving the small state more influence on committees (especially the House and Senate Agriculture Committees) than it would have had otherwise. Rep. Earl Pomeroy lost his seat in 2010 after airing a last-ditch ad featuring him showing his driver’s license and saying, “I’m not Nancy Pelosi, I’m not Barack Obama” U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan announced that he would not run for re-election in early 2010 after he faced the possibility of a serious challenge from popular Gov. John Hoeven (R).

South Dakota, too, elected Democrats like Sen. Tom Daschle, Rep. Stephanie Herseth and before them, Sen. George McGovern — all of whom were defeated in big Republican years of 2004, 2010 and 1980, respectively. Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) may well be the last Democrat of the Dakotas after 2012, as he is up for re-election in 2014. (He survived re-election in 2002 by 524 votes.)

The race might not be a foregone conclusion for Democrats as it was in 2010 — dthere isn’t a popular candidate like Gov. Hoeven in the race, and Barack Obama only lost North Dakota by eight points in 2008.

As they did during the health care debate, liberals will probably point out that the Dakotas have four senators, though the states’ cumulative population is only a little larger than that of the Bronx.

Dave Weigel notes that in 1889, congressional Republicans made the Dakotas two states to increase their representation in Congress. Belatedly, that could happen.

The coalition, a coalition of business groups that advocates for policies that support electric vehicles, has been lobbying for passage of a bill authored by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) that would “extend and expand national incentives to accelerate the introduction of electric cars and trucks throughout the country,” according to Dorgan’s office.

The bill passed the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in July and was included in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) slimmed-down energy bill. But the bill failed to move before the August recess. Senate aides say Reid is hoping to move an energy bill either in the lame-duck session or early next year. President Obama lent his support to the effort in a Rolling Stone interview published on the web yesterday.

In an interview with The Washington Independent, Robbie Diamond, president of the Electrification Coalition, said, “It’s a low percentage chance that things get done in the lame-duck session, but we’re incredibly optimistic that something can get done at the beginning of the next congress.”

Diamond said the electric vehicle bill will likely be included in a slimmed-down energy bill with other proposals that have won bipartisan support. “If you watch all the signs, gigantic, comprehensive bills are not in vogue at the moment. I think it could be coupled with one or two other bipartisan, important energy proposals,” he said.

Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) unveiled a proposal Tuesday to increase use of renewable energy. (Flickr, Auntie K)

A bipartisan coalition of senators today unveiled a proposal that would require a certain percentage of the country’s electricity to come from renewable sources like wind and solar. The announcement revived hopes that the measure could move this year, but it remains unclear if there is enough time or political will in the Senate to pass the legislation this session.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has not committed to setting aside floor time for the proposal this year. And the bill’s author, Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), told reporters today that he would wait to cement the necessary votes before approaching Reid to schedule a vote.

Renewable energy advocates and environmentalists praised the announcement, while noting that the renewable energy standard, or RES, is not stringent enough. The last six months have been difficult for environmentalists, who faced a string of legislative defeats — first on economy-wide cap-and-trade, then on a narrow cap-and-trade bill. And now there are legitimate questions about whether the Senate will be able to pass a slimmed-down energy bill or an oil spill response bill, even after the mid-term elections.

So the RES announcement was, for many environmentalists, a welcome respite from months of disappointment. Sean Garren, clean energy advocate at Environment America, said, “Senator Bingaman’s renewable electricity standard would commit America to beginning the move towards a clean energy economy.  While the standard is weaker than America can and should achieve, the Senate must pass the bill quickly to deliver to the entire country the benefits that states with standards are already enjoying.”

The bill, which is sponsored by Bingaman and Sam Brownback (R-Kans.), has early support from a number of Democrats, including Sen. Byron Dorgan (N.D.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.). Two other Republicans, Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and John Ensign (Nev.), also lent their support to the proposal.

The proposal, which is nearly identical to a provision in an energy bill passed by Bingaman’s Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last year, requires that 15 percent of the country’s electricity comes from renewable sources by 2021. Entities can meet the standard by producing or purchasing renewable energy like wind, solar, biomass and some hydropower. They can also meet the standard through energy efficiency savings. The RES will not affect state programs, many of which are more stringent than the federal proposal, according to a summary of the bill.

But a 2009 analysis of a similar RES proposal by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a research arm of the Department of Energy, found that it likely won’t increase renewable energy development beyond a business-as-usual scenario. The analysis is based on Bingaman’s original 20 percent by 2021 RES proposal, which was cut down to 15 percent to win support from Republicans on the committee.

Bingaman said he believes he has the 60 votes necessary to pass the new RES bill. “I think that the votes are present in the Senate to pass a renewable electricity standard,” he said in a statement. “I think that they are present in the House. I think that we need to get on with figuring out what we can pass and move forward.”

Franz Matzner, climate center legislative director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, says the RES proposal “doesn’t deliver the goods the way we’d like to see it.” The bill is a “band aid” measure, he says, arguing that the Senate needs to move on comprehensive climate change legislation. But Matzner says, “If this is the best place we can get bipartisan agreement, it’s better than getting nothing done.”

It’s too early to say whether the bill will be able to pass the Senate this year. There are very few legislative days left before the Senate breaks for the mid-term elections, and it’s unclear how long a lame-duck session might be. “They could have an eight-hour lame-duck session or they could have a productive two weeks or they could sit and do nothing,” Matzner says.

Reid’s spokeswoman, Regan Lachapelle, notes there is very little time left in the year to pass the RES bill. “Senator Reid strongly supports a national renewable electricity standard,” LaChapelle says. “But, there is very limited time before the October recess and probably even during the lame duck, so the proponents of a stand-alone RES will need to demonstrate they have 60 votes for swift floor action before floor consideration could be scheduled.”

One environmentalist — who has been closely following the issue but is not authorized to speak on the record — said passage of the RES could be dependent on whether it moves as a stand-alone measure or is packaged together with other provisions. At the same time, the environmentalist says, much will depend on the outcome of the mid-term elections. “The bigger the Republican success on election day, the less likely anything will be accomplished during the lame duck session,” the environmentalist says.

Many environmentalists have called for a 25 percent RES by 2025, but before the August recess a coalition of renewable energy advocates endorsed the Bingaman 15 percent RES, noting that it was the only proposal that could win bipartisan support. “In this political climate, we have to do what we have to do,” American Wind Energy Association President Denise Bode told reporters in July.

The announcement comes as the renewable energy industry has ramped up lobbying efforts to pass an RES this year and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has left the door open to considering such a proposal. But it remains unclear when, exactly, the Senate might take up the bill and whether it will be coupled with other provisions or go forward as a standalone measure.

In a statement, Bingaman said he believes the Senate has the votes to pass the measure, which would require that a certain percentage of the country’s electricity come from renewable sources like wind and solar. Bingaman said:

I think that the votes are present in the Senate to pass a renewable electricity standard.  I think that they are present in the House.  I think that we need to get on with figuring out what we can pass and move forward.

Brownback, who hails from the wind-rich state of Kansas, called for a “sensible and modest” RES proposal.

The Hill talked to Sens. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.), all of whom said they were still undecided. Landrieu, Dorgan and Conrad gave no indication of how they would vote on the DREAM Act, while McCaskill leaned more toward a “yes”:

“It depends on the language,” she said. “I have some problems with the way the bill was drafted last time. I am certainly more comfortable with the notion that somebody who has been in the country for five years and who came here through the fault of their parents and not their fault ought to get a green card to serve in the military. I’m very sympathetic to that. I’m just looking at the drafting now.”

But Pryor is leaning no.

“I’ll have to look at it and see, but my inclination is probably to vote against it again,” he said. “But I want to look at it and see. I know there’s been some changes.”

With Democrats undecided, the likelihood of the DREAM Act passing as an amendment remains up in the air. Reid will need 60 votes to pass the bill because several Republicans have vowed to block the DREAM Act, claiming it has nothing to do with defense spending. Previous Republican supporters of the DREAM Act, such as Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), have said they will vote against the bill.

Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) have both pushed for a renewable energy standard. (EPA/ZUMApress.com)

The renewable energy industry has largely abandoned efforts to push a stringent renewable energy standard in pending energy legislation, instead calling for a standard that many have said is not strong enough to bring about rapid wind and solar energy development.

[Environment1] On a conference call with reporters today, a coalition of renewable energy companies scaled back its previous calls for passage of an RES that requires 25 percent of the country’s electricity to come from renewable sources like wind and solar. Instead, the coalition is now calling for passage of the RES passed by Sen. Jeff Bingaman’s (D-N.M.) Energy and Natural Resources Committee last summer, because the advocates say it can get the 60 votes necessary for passage in the Senate.

Bingaman’s RES, which passed with bipartisan support as part of a larger energy bill, requires that 15 percent of the country’s electricity come from renewable sources by 2021. That figure has been criticized by many in the environmental community for not going far enough to incentivize renewable energy production.

“In this political climate, we have to do what we have to do,” American Wind Energy Association President Denise Bode told reporters on the call. Tom Daschle, the former Senate majority leader, told reporters on the call that he believe a 15 percent RES could get 60 votes.

Participants on the call included Iowa Gov. Chet Culver (D) and Lew Hay, CEO of NextEra Energy, the largest renewable energy developer in the United States. The energy company representatives on the call are part of a coalition called the RES Alliance for Jobs, whose members also include the renewable energy developer Iberdrola Renewables, the National Hydropower Association and General Electric.

If Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) does not include an RES in the bill he is expected to release later today (Reid said last week that an RES could not garner 60 votes), Daschle said the coalition is working with lawmakers to introduce a floor amendment in an attempt to attach Bingaman’s RES language to the bill.

“I think it’s fair to say that if the RES is not included in a bill when its introduced, we can virtually guarantee that there will be an amendment offered,” Daschle said on the call, adding later, “There may be other amendments offered but at the very least, the Bingaman RES will be offered.”

It remains unclear which lawmaker would offer an amendment on an RES. Bingaman has long maintained that he would like to strengthen an RES, but said he will only offer such a proposal if he can find 60 votes. Other possibilities include Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), who has also expressed interest in strengthening a bill, and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who has introduced a bill that in part would bolster the RES.

But one environmentalist tracking the energy debate closely says that there is a possibility that Reid could restrict amendments to the energy bill in order to pass something before the August recess, which begins in less than two weeks. If amendments are restricted, debate on an RES would likely be pushed back until September, when many lawmakers will be heavily focused on the upcoming mid-term elections.

A source with the coalition, who asked not to be named in order to talk freely about the group, acknowledged that the Bingaman RES is inadequate in the short term. “In the Bingaman bill, the near-term targets stink; we all know that,” the source said. But it is important to pass something this year in order to send a signal that more is coming down the road. “It would be much easier to strengthen in little ways and augment in little ways an RES that we have now than it would be to pass a renewable energy standard next year,” the source said.

The source pointed to news last week that China has decided to implement a cap-and-trade system, though the details of the program remain unclear. “We completely dropped the ball on cap-and-trade and China picked it up,” the source said. “What we’re pushing for is the last chance. This is the last thing that stands between the United States and China on the clean energy race.”

If an RES does not pass before the August break, the source said the coalition would continue to work to move such a proposal in September. “The renewables guys and the environmentalists are not going to stop fighting,” the source said.

An environmentalist source, who also asked for anonymity to discuss the energy debate, said that passage of Bingaman’s RES would be a “silver lining” in Reid’s scaled-back energy bill, but added that “if all that gets done is just a weak RES, then it’s still been a total failure.” The source said an RES, even a more stringent one, is not a substitute for climate legislation that includes a cap on carbon emissions.

The source said that it is unlikely that an RES will pass before the August recess because Reid doesn’t believe it has the votes. “So far there’s not been a lot of evidence that it’s going to be incorporated. Putting the RES in just makes it easier for folks to stand in the way of getting the Gulf oil spill response done,” the source said.

With the apparent death of a cap on emissions from the utility sector, environmentalists and renewable energy advocates are stepping up their efforts to pass a strong RES of 25 percent by 2025. An RES would require that a certain percentage of the country’s electricity be produced from renewable sources like wind and solar.

But a scaled-down bill Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is slated to bring to the floor before the August recess is not expected to include an RES.

As I reported last week, Dorgan has said he wants to strengthen the RES and was planning to offer an amendment to the climate bill on the issue. But, with the news that the bill will be slimmed down to include only an oil spill response title and popular energy measures, it remains unclear if Dorgan will offer an RES amendment.

With Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) broaching the possibility that a climate bill could move after the August recess, any effort to include pass an RES may have to wait until the fall.

But one source who has been advocating for an RES says Dorgan is leading an effort to attach such a provision to Reid’s upcoming bill as an amendment. Rick Gion, a spokesperson for Dorgan, would not offer any new details on such an effort, saying, “Nothing new on this end yet.”

If leadership can get the support of all 33 “yes” votes, the 16 “probably yes” votes and the 10 lawmakers listed as “on the fence” (which is a big “if”), that only brings the vote count to 59, according to Politico. That means leadership needs to convince one “probably no” lawmaker to support a final bill.

Politico lists five Democrats in the “probably no” category: Sens. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), Carte Goodwin (D-W.Va.) (who underscored his opposition to cap-and-trade last week), Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) and Jay Rockefeller (D-.W.Va.).

Worth noting: If Lincoln’s Senate race remains as tough as it now appears and Goodwin steps aside, as expected, to let another Democrat run for his seat in the fall, four of those five “probably no” Democrats won’t be around next year. Freed from electoral pressure, might one of them “vote his/her conscience” and support an energy bill? Only time will tell.

Environmental groups are looking to strengthen the renewable energy standard in Sen. Jeff Bingaman's (D-N.M.) energy bill. (Pete Marovich/ZUMApress.com)

With the fate of a scaled-back cap on greenhouse gas emissions uncertain, environmental groups are scrambling to find a way to maintain a bill that would still achieve substantial cuts in global warming pollution. Now they have refocused their attention on strengthening a renewable energy standard, which would require a percentage of the country’s electricity to come from renewable energy sources like wind and solar.

[Environment1] Environmental groups have participated in a series of meetings in recent weeks to press Senate staff to strengthen the renewable energy standard (RES) included in the energy bill passed by Sen. Jeff Bingaman’s (D-N.M.) Energy and Natural Resources Committee last year. The RES in the bill would require that 15 percent of the country’s electricity come from renewable sources, a standard that most environmentalists think is far too weak.

Environmental advocates have long seen an RES as essential to jump-starting the renewable energy sector. While an RES would result in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, environmentalists say a comprehensive energy and climate bill, with a cap on carbon, is required to reduce emissions enough to stave off catastrophic climate change. “An RES was never intended to be a carbon reduction measure,” said Marchant Wentworth, deputy legislative director at the Union for Concerned Scientists. “Its intent was always to increase renewable energy [capacity].”

So as they advocate a stronger RES, environmental groups continue to push for a utility-sector cap on emissions, holding a series of meetings in recent days and weeks with representatives of key electric utilities. It remains to be seen whether environmental and utility groups can find middle ground on the proposal, a necessary step, sources on and off the Hill say, to ensure passage of such a provision. The utilities have pushed for an exemption from Environmental Protection Agency regulation in exchange for supporting a carbon cap on their companies — a compromise environmental groups are unlikely to accept. If a deal on a cap proves impossible, environmental groups see an RES as the next best thing.

Environmentalists are lobbying Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to include an RES that would require 25 percent of the country’s electricity to come from renewable sources by 2025 in the energy bill he is expected to bring to the floor the week of July 26. A coalition of environmental groups — including the Sierra Club, Environmental Defense Fund and the Natural Resources Defense Council — sent a letter to Reid Wednesday calling for a 10 percent RES by 2013 and a 25 percent RES by 2025.

“We commend the Energy & Natural Resources Committee for including a national renewable electricity standard in the American Clean Energy Leadership Act,” the letter says. “Unfortunately, the provision as drafted would fail to drive a significant expansion of renewable energy. Studies show that the amount of renewable energy development resulting from the renewable energy requirement in ACELA could be lower than expected growth in development as a result of existing state policies and federal incentives.”

If the Reid bill includes Bingman’s proposal, a number of lawmakers who have called for a stronger RES will likely seek to offer amendments to the bill. But some sources say that given the tight time frame before the August recess, Reid could restrict amendments to the legislation, leaving lawmakers with little time to strengthen an RES on the floor. Reid’s spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Wentworth, of the Union for Concerned Scientists, says Bingaman and Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) are planning to offer an amendment on the floor that would raise the RES to 20 percent. While that’s below the target that UCS and other environmental groups are calling for, Marchant acknowledges that a 25 percent RES may not be able to get 60 votes in the Senate.

Bill Wicker, Bingaman’s spokesperson, said Thursday that the senator would like to see the RES “strengthened and improved” in the final version of the bill. Wicker added that he does not believe the energy bill being cobbled together by Reid, based on a number of energy and climate proposals, has been written yet.

Once that bill is made available, “then we’ll all then know what the RES figure is going to be,” Wicker said, adding that Bingaman would support the highest RES that can gain enough support for passage. Dorgan’s spokesperson, Barry Piatt, confirms that the senator is planning to offer an RES amendment.

And environmentalists are touting a proposal introduced last year by Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) that would implement a 25 percent RES. Udall’s spokesperson confirmed that the senator is trying to get the 25 percent RES included in Reid’s legislative package. With the potential for protracted floor debate on the bill, lawmakers are hoping to get a stronger RES in the bill before it hits the floor.

Meanwhile, Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) introduced a bill this week that also includes a 25 percent RES. But environmentalists are hesitant to support the bill because it includes an extension of tax credits for ethanol and incentives for biofuels, though one environmentalist source acknowledges that such provisions could help gain Republican support for the proposal.

An aide in Klobuchar’s office says the goal is to include parts of the bill in the package Reid’s staff is writing or as an amendment on the floor. The aide says Klobuchar is meeting with a number of senators to try to build support for the legislation, but there are currently no other co-sponsors.

But Klobuchar and Johnson have the support of a number of powerful industry trade associations, including the American Wind Energy Association, the wind industry’s trade group, and the Renewable Fuels Association, which represents the ethanol industry. A source with Growth Energy, another ethanol trade group that has endorsed the proposal, says a utility-only bill is “the death knell; it’s not going to go anywhere.”

A stronger RES allows environmentalists to claim victory on a climate proposal. Democrats “want to be able to say to the environmental community, ‘We didn’t get everything, but we got something through,’” the ethanol industry source says. “They can come out at the end of the day and say it’s jobs, it’s some climate, but not the type of climate that will make the Republicans choke.” While environmentalists aren’t sold on the Klobuchar-Johnson bill, the ethanol industry source says that incentives for ethanol could win support from key Republicans like Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).

Cindy Paoletti's home-state senators, Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, have indicated they might be willing to extend unemployment benefits beyond 99 weeks. (EPA/ZUMAPRESS.com)

For 23 years, 58-year-old Cindy Paoletti of Salina, N.Y., worked in the corporate accounting division of J.P. Morgan Chase, balancing payroll accounts in an upstate office of the Wall Street bank. In December 2007, Paoletti was let go in a wave of layoffs that eventually shuttered the entire Syracuse operations center. “My job went to India,” she sighs.

[Economy1] Soon after, she started collecting unemployment benefits and severance while searching for a job in earnest. “I apply for everything out there,” she says, estimating she has applied to hundreds of positions over the past 30 months. “But 95 percent of the time, the company you send your resume to does not even acknowledge that they’ve received it. The majority of the time, if you do get an interview, they tell you that you are overqualified. It seems like as soon as they find out your age, everything goes down after there. The age discrimination is horrendous. And everybody in that baby boomer age group is experiencing the same thing.”

For 99 weeks, Paoletti accepted New York state and federal unemployment benefits. This spring, they ran out. Now, she is drawing down her IRA to stay afloat, underwater on her mortgage and without health insurance.

She’s not alone. Indeed, Paoletti is one of a million 99ers, as the long-term unemployed who have exceeded the maximum number of weeks of benefits are known.

The joblessness crisis — in the average duration of unemployment, if not the absolute unemployment rate — is unprecedented in the postwar United States. Of the 15 million unemployed in America, over 7 million have been out of work for more than six months, nearly 5 million for a year and over 1 million for two years — the worst statistics since the government started keeping count in 1948. The proportion of the unemployed out of work for more than six months has doubled in the past year, to more than 46 percent. The jobseekers-to-jobs ratio, which tells how hard positions are to get, remains around 5.6 to 1.

Paoletti and other 99ers are afflicted by a constellation of problems. Many are underwater on their mortgages, meaning they cannot sell their homes and move away. Many are “structurally unemployed,” meaning that demand for their now-obsolete skills will not tick back up as the recession eases. And many have deep ties to their communities, and cannot or will not move for another job. For instance, Paoletti’s father recently passed away after a battle with Alzheimer’s; she helped care for him until his death. Her brother (also unemployed for years now) lives nearby, and her daughter — who moved home when she lost her job, and just found work decorating cakes part-time at a grocery store — lives with her.

The million 99ers like Paoletti do not just struggle with the immediate effects of joblessness — including, in many cases, the slide from the middle class into poverty. They also struggle with the lingering deleterious effects. The longer people are unemployed, the harder it is for them to regain a job. Their skills deteriorate. They tend to lose confidence, become depressed and suffer from higher rates of divorce and suicide.

Paoletti — and many experts — believe that only an expansion of emergency unemployment benefits or a similar intervention from Washington will save her and her cohort from abject poverty if employment does not rebound strongly, quickly. But Washington doesn’t seem motivated to fight for jobs — or for the 99ers. The Senate is currently considering a $100 billion jobs package that might include new money to hire workers for highway repair and to preserve local-government hiring of teachers, as well as tax breaks for employers. But none of the measures under consideration in the bill would keep the benefit checks coming in the mail for more than 99 weeks.

The senators from Paoletti’s home state — Democrats Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand — have both indicated they might be willing to extend unemployment benefits to 100-plus weeks. (This would create a fifth tier of unemployment benefits. Tier IV, created by Congress last year, brought the maximum number of weeks of benefits to 99 in states with high unemployment rates.) Schumer even wrote a letter that was published on the website of Paoletti’s local newspaper, saying, “Once I ensure that every New Yorker receives the full 99 weeks to which they are entitled, I will work with my colleagues to create a fifth tier of benefits. More than 25,000 New Yorkers have exhausted the full 99 weeks of benefits and I am committed to providing them further relief.”

But the Senate as a whole is less than willing. Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has indicated that he will not vote for a fifth tier, as have others. “You can’t go on forever. I think 99 weeks is sufficient,” Baucus told Bloomberg News. Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) likewise dismissed the idea. “There’s just been no discussion to go beyond [99 weeks],” he said. And the Senate leadership, without explicitly shooting down a fifth tier, has nodded in agreement.

Paoletti argues that Washington recognizes the enormity and seriousness of the problem but is turning its back on some of the nation’s neediest. The recalcitrance has led her to go activist. She and some friends are currently lobbying for the final passage of the latest extenders bill, known in online communities for the 99ers as “4213,” its original bill number in the House. It would not help people who have exhausted benefits, but would prevent the expiry of Tier IV extended benefits for hundreds of thousands of people a week. Additionally, Paoletti and others meet up on listservs and websites, fax resumes to Washington and call congressional offices.

She hopes that a hearing on Thursday might prove the turning point for the 99ers. Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), the head of the subpanel on income security and family support for the House Ways and Means Committee, is holding the first hearing on policy responses for long-term unemployment. “Our first step to respond to long-term unemployment is obvious — continue the emergency federal unemployment programs to prevent millions of workers from losing their benefits,” McDermott said in a statement. “If we can afford wars, tax cuts and bank bailouts, then we can certainly afford to maintain programs for workers who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. An increasing number of Americans who have worked hard and played by the rules are now finding themselves with no job, no savings and no support. We must not abandon these workers and their families.”

Paoletti hopes that the hearing — where letters from her and thousands others might be read into the record — will gin up pressure for Tier V. Other solutions likely to be discussed are job retraining and emergency benefit programs. But it all might be too little, too late for 99ers falling into poverty at a rate of thousands per week.

“Out of all the people [I know] that got laid off the same time as me, I think only three have found jobs,” Paoletti says. “The rest are still all have exhausted unemployment or they’re getting close to the end of it. Someone’s got to do something.”