The bill to extend payroll tax cuts and extend unemployment benefits is part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2012, H.R. 3671, a $1 trillion dollar omnibus spending bill that funds several federal government departments, including Defense and Homeland Security.

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that “the House voted Tuesday to scuttle a deal brokered in the Senate to extend the payroll-tax holiday and federal unemployment insurance for two months.”

The Journal adds that the “vote leaves Congress at a familiar impasse, just days after a final deal seemed to be in sight. Senate leaders reached an agreement late last week to extend for two months the payroll-tax cut, federal unemployment benefits and a measure to reimburse doctors for treating Medicare patients.”

The 2012 Appropriations Act includes funding that raises the number of immigration detention beds to about 34,000.

The final Fiscal Year 2012 Appropriations 1,200-page bill package includes “a total of $39.6 billion in regular discretionary funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – a decrease of $2 billion below last year’s level and $4 billion below the President’s request.”

According to a detailed summary (.pdf), “the bill provides $5.9 billion for [Immigrations and Customs Enforcement], which is $50 million more than last year’s level. This includes funding for 34,000 detention beds – the largest detention capacity in ICE’s history – and increases in immigration enforcement activities.”

Residents of Pembroke Pines and the town of Southwest Ranches are opposed to the federally funded and privately managed detention center set to be built in South Florida.

The 2012 Appropriations Act also includes $11.7 billion for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, “an increase of $362 million over last year’s level.”

Photo: An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer (ice.gov)

“Our organization has over 1 million members nationwide, including tens of thousands in swing states like Colorado. All eyes are on the White House now.”

The Obama administration in November won environmental praise for delaying a decision until 2013 on the pipeline that would transport tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf Coast of Texas. Early plans for the route included an alternative through Colorado, but later versions ran through Nebraska, where lawmakers were poised to fight possible impacts to the Sand Hills area.

House Republicans working on the payroll tax relief and unemployment extension bill included a provision asking Obama to review the Keystone XL proposal and make a decision within two months.

“This bill … accelerates a decision on the Keystone XL energy pipeline, a measure that will help the private sector create more jobs,” Colorado Republican Rep. Cory Gardner said in a release over the weekend. “It requires that a permitting decision on the pipeline be made within 60 days unless the president determines the project is not in the national interest.”

But now the entire bill, which would also stop a nearly 30 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors, is stalled because House Republicans are insisting on at least a one-year deal instead of the two-month stop-gap measure the Senate overwhelmingly passed on Saturday. House Speaker John Boehner wants Congress to work through the holidays, but Democrats and even some Senate Republicans say they’re tired of the uncompromising position of House GOP members.

The inclusion of the Keystone XL provision was seen as a huge victory for House Republicans who bristled at Obama’s delay, saying the administration was putting environmental considerations over jobs creation.

“President Obama wants to delay a final decision on the project for a full year, after the next election,” said Colorado Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn. “That massive project will not only bring much needed oil to America’s refineries, it will create 20,000 [jobs] just in the construction of the pipeline alone.”

However, even the job numbers have been called into question on the proposed pipeline, which environmentalists fear will expose large swaths of the nation to potential pipeline spills while allowing the free flow of tar sands oil – one of the most carbon-intensive forms of petroleum production.

Locally, the Suncor refinery in Commerce City that recently spilled sludge into a tributary of the Platte River refines oil pumped in by pipeline from the tar sands fields of Alberta. Pipeline safety has been a hot topic since this summer’s ExxonMobil spill in the Yellowstone River of Montana.

Climate change author and activist Bill McKibben skewered the inclusion of Keystone XL in the payroll tax relief bill.

“The dirty energy industry wants the pipeline fast-tracked, and is demanding that the president grant or deny a permit within two months; they’re going to do all they can to make that happen,” McKibben wrote on his group’s website.

“The administration knows that Americans don’t want that permit granted,” McKibben said. “They know because many of you encircled the White House in November, and submitted more public comments than on any energy project in history, and because yesterday the climate movement flooded the White House switchboard with so many phone calls that the busy signal was the sound of the day.”

The GOP-sponsored “Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act,” which extends payroll tax cuts and extends but reduces unemployment benefits through 2012, passed in the U.S. House Tuesday night, but it will not pass in the Senate.

The bill — filed by Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., and cosponsored by five other Republicans, including Rep. Ilena Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami — also cuts “$8 billion from the Harkin Prevention Fund“ and reduces “Medicaid spending by more than $4 billion.”

CBS News reports today that the “measure would keep 160 million workers from seeing their payroll tax jump on Jan. 1 from this year’s 4.2 percent back to its normal level of 6.2 percent,” and would “also renew expiring extra benefits for long-term jobless people.”

The National Employment Law Project said Tuesday the House vote, which includes cuts to unemployment insurance, “will hurt millions of unemployed workers and their families and will further damage the economy.”

The Employment Law Project adds that the House GOP bill would:

• Cut federal unemployment benefits by more than half in 2012, eliminating 40 weeks of payments.
• “Allow the last leg of the federal unemployment insurance extension – the 13 to 20 weeks of Extended Benefits (EB) that are available in the hardest-hit states – to expire, mostly over the course of the first half of 2012.”
• Cut extended benefits in states with unemployment rates higher than the national average, which stands at 8.6 percent.

The Law Project report indicates that under the GOP bill approved Tuesday night, Florida’s unemployed workers would see their unemployment benefits cut by 40 weeks.

Politico reports that the bill, which also “calls for construction of the controversial Keystone KL oil pipeline,” “is dead on arrival in the Democratic Senate and faced a veto threat anyway.”

According to The New York Times, “members of both parties said the payroll tax cut would put money in the pockets of consumers, increasing the demand for goods and services and shoring up a weak economy,” adding that the House bill “would extend jobless benefits for some of the unemployed, while reducing the maximum number of weeks of benefits that a worker could receive.”

The Research Institute on Social and Economic Policy at Florida International University said Tuesday that “if congress does not renew the Extended Benefits (EB) and Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) programs by January 1, 2012, tens of thousands of Floridians currently receiving unemployment benefits funded by the federal government will be cut off.”

The Research Institute, known as RISEP, adds that in Florida, “unemployment has been consistently decreasing since the end of 2010, but labor force participation rates have been decreasing as well. At the end of 2010, the labor force participation rate was 62.7%, but by October 2011, the percentage of working-age population in Florida looking for jobs decreased to 61.8%.”

The RISEP report (.pdf) also argues that whatever Congress decides to do, a law signed by Gov. Rick Scott in June, “will further reduce the number of weeks of federally funded benefits that unemployed workers will be eligible for”:

Last spring the Florida legislature reduced the maximum number of weeks of unemployment from 26 weeks to 23 weeks, depending on how high the unemployment rate is. Starting January 1, the approximately 15,000 people per week who file initial claims for unemployment benefits will be eligible for only 23 weeks of benefits. The state estimates this change will save the Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund $103 million annually, representing a savings to employers but a loss to families and businesses which depend on UC benefits.

CBS News reports today:

The GOP-run House was expected to approve the roughly $180 billion legislation Tuesday in a battle that each party thinks gives it a chance to win over voters as the 2012 election year approaches. [...]

“The American people want jobs,” House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said. “This is as close to a shovel-ready project as you’re ever going to see.”

According to CBS, Democrats “complain that the bill does not do enough for unemployed people coping with one of the worst U.S. economies in decades. The bill prevents extra benefits for the long-term unemployed from expiring on Jan. 1, but would gradually wind down maximum coverage to 59 weeks, well below the current 99-week ceiling.”

According to CNN, “lawmakers could vote as soon as Tuesday on a controversial plan by House Republicans to link the payroll tax cut to government approval of a proposed oil pipeline.”

In early November, House Ways and Means Committee Democrats introduced the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Act, legislation to extend federal unemployment insurance programs through 2012.

The National Employment Law Project, which supports the proposed Democratic legislation, writes that “the leadership of the House of Representatives has proposed [a bill] to slash the federal [Unemployment Insurance] programs and also do substantial harm to the basic state UI system.”

The Employment Law Project adds (PDF) that the new GOP bill, filed by Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., would:

• Cut the federal program by more than half in 2012, eliminating 40 weeks of benefits.
• “Allow the last leg of the federal unemployment insurance extension – the 13 to 20 weeks of Extended Benefits (EB) that are available in the hardest-hit states – to expire, mostly over the course 2of the first half of 2012.”
• Cut extended benefits in states with unemployment rates higher than the national average, which stands at 8.6 percent.

Florida, with an unemployment rate slightly higher than 10 percent, will “feel the impact of the full 40-week cut in benefits” by July 2012.

Camp’s bill also includes tax, Medicare and welfare provisions and “repeals provisions in the Democrat’s Health Care Law.”

According to the Employment Law Project, “over the past three years, federal unemployment insurance has helped more than 17 million Americans,” during the Great Recession’s tough job market.

Among the most staggering numbers highlighted during the program was “of all the families without shelter in America, one third are in Florida.”

The state’s foreclosure crisis, coupled with high unemployment and austere budget cuts, has resulted in countless homeless families in Florida living out of their cars — if they have them, 60 Minutes explains. Many families with small children are left hoping for a job or charity before food runs out. Caught in the crosshairs of this epidemic, the program showed, have been young schoolchildren.

According to this year’s KIDS COUNT data, Florida was “the state with the 2nd highest percent of children impacted by foreclosure since 2007.”

The account of a handful of young children had a persistent theme: Most homeless families in the state had run out of options. Many saw their unemployment benefits dry up, and public services were too scarce and maxed-out to provide any help.

Most of the families interviewed by 60 Minutes said they were relying solely on the generosity of donations from their community.

What was not mentioned, however, was the state’s missed opportunities to help.

One example was a line in the the state’s 2011/2012 budget that allocated $12 million dollars from the state’s general revenue fund to the National Veterans’ Homeless Support Group for “homeless housing assistance grants.” While this appropriation made it through the budget process, the item was one of the many vetoed by Gov. Rick Scott.

Scott spoke about the funds this weekend, the Naples Daily News reports:

“I care completely about all these programs,” said Scott, whose budget cuts earlier this year slashed funding to some veteran and farm surplus programs that helped the homeless.

“All the programs are very important, but nobody wants their taxes to go up,” Scott explained, noting that businesses also can help spur the economy. “They’ve got to grow. We’ve got to make this a place people can do well.”

The state also reduced unemployment benefits, even though the state has yet to get a handle on its unemployment rate. A bill signed by Scott this year reduced the maximum number of weeks someone can receive state unemployment benefits. The limit went from 26 weeks to 23 — and if the state’s unemployment rate continues to fall, benefits could be limited to as little as 12 weeks.

There are currently no assurances that legislators in the state are looking to beef up public assistance programs either. Already, there are warnings of deeper budget cuts as the state prepares for a $2 billion shortfall.

You can watch the 60 Minutes segment here:

Last session, the Chamber successfully lobbied for changes to the state’s unemployment benefit program. The result of their efforts: fewer benefit payments to the unemployed and a reduction of entrants into the program. In Florida, the maximum number of weeks someone can receive state unemployment benefits changed from 26 weeks to 23 — and if the state’s unemployment rate continues to fall, that could be shortened to as little as 12 weeks.

Businesses in Florida, however, were allowed to dodge an increase in taxes levied to fill the state’s unemployment trust. The trust has been frequently teetering on insolvency because of the state’s persistent unemployment.

New reports show that Florida currently has the fifth lowest unemployment benefits in the country, as well as the eight lowest unemployment tax. Florida was one of only three states that made significant cuts to unemployment benefits and eligibility over the past two years.

Rich Templin of the AFL-CIO says that businesses in Florida have been allowed to not contribute what is “legally their fair share.” According to him, while some argue last year’s legislation relieved businesses of a burden, it actually hurt small businesses, in particular.

“What ends up happening is that small businesses actually lose out on money at the cash register,” Templin says. “It’s actually a job-killer.” He says when unemployed people do not receive benefits or receive less benefits, they lose “purchasing power” that goes back into the state’s economy. Templin calls Florida’s unemployment program an “unmitigated disaster.”

In the Chamber’s 2012 agenda (.pdf), the group says that the state “must”:

• Modify the formula in current law that determines the unemployment compensation trust fund balance recoupment rate and reduces the taxable wage base.
• Encourage examination by the Department of Revenue and legislative committees of the array calculation and its potential impact on Florida’s unemployment compensation tax rate for businesses.

While the group has not asked for specific legislation, Templin says the fact that the influential Chamber has unemployment benefits on its agenda again is a “concern.”

Alan Stonecipher of the Florida Center for Fiscal and Economic Policy says the state has been “declaring open season on the unemployed.” He says the plan to remove responsibility from businesses has been “unfair, as well as unwise.”

“Florida has had the deepest and most sweeping cuts to unemployment than anywhere in the country,” Stonecipher says. “Florida has been open for business — and businesses have been walking right through the door.”

Florida’s unemployment problem has not seen seen any real improvement. It was reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics yesterday that the state suffered 69 mass layoff actions during the month of September, which was the fourth highest number in the nation. The state’s employment growth has also mostly been in low-wage industries.

“The state is no longer digging into the bone of unemployment benefits,” Templin says. “They are digging into the marrow.”

Florida’s unemployment tax currently averages about 0.5 percent of all wages, which is eighth among the 50 states.

The Associated Press reports:

Florida’s average benefit of about $230 a week is the fifth lowest. Florida ranks behind only Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Arizona.

The report also says Florida is one of three states that have made significant cuts in benefits and eligibility over the past two years.

Starting Jan. 1, Florida will cut the 26-week maximum benefit period. It’ll go on a sliding scale with a 23-week maximum if the unemployment rate is more than 10.5 percent.

It’ll be only 12 weeks if the jobless rate falls below 5 percent.

The latest jobs reports show that the state faces a persistent unemployment problem. The rate stayed static at 10.7 percent from July to August. The September jobs information shows that the number of individual who were jobless for 27 weeks and over was 6.2 million in September, or 44.6 percent of the unemployed.

Michigan workers continue to face one of the nation’s toughest labor markets. Earlier hopes of a recovery proved to be premature as the number of unemployed and the unemployment rate in Michigan increased substantially in recent months, while the number of labor force participants and number of workers holding a job fell.

Adding injury to insult, state lawmakers enacted legislation in March of this year to reduce the duration of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits by six weeks (from 26 to 20 weeks). Nearly all states, including Michigan, began offering 26 weeks of UI during the 1950s.

Currently, the Michigan legislature is considering new bills designed to further reduce UI payments for low- and moderate-wage claimants while leaving more unemployed individuals without UI coverage. The fact that Michigan is now borrowing $3.1 billion from the federal government to finance state UI payments is being used to justify the benefit cuts. Proponents of the new legislation have long-supported UI benefit cuts, even before the current solvency crisis, which they now use as a convenient rationale for further undermining UI.

The paper describes what the proposed legislation would do:

Recent and past UI program history aside, some Michigan lawmakers believe that unemployed workers are due to make more sacrifices. Newly proposed legislation (HB 4781 and HB 4782) would further erode UI benefits by altering the formula used to determine weekly benefit amounts and by preventing other unemployed workers from receiving benefits.

The most damaging legislative proposal is the replacement of the current formula used to determine weekly benefit amounts with a new formula known as 52-week averaging (HB 4781). Claims that the new formula is only meant to address “seasonal” workers are misleading. No worker will qualify for a larger benefit under the new bill and most will face reductions

1. All individuals with base-period earnings under $40,052 would face a benefit reduction.

2. Under the proposed formula, weekly UI benefits would be lower by 12 to 67 percent for workers earning up to $35,500. Individuals who did not earn the same amount each week throughout the base period would experience the most significant losses.

3. Currently UI payments replace up to 53.3 percent of lost wages from a worker’s highest quarter of earnings. The proposed formula would lower the maximum replacement rate to 47 percent.4. Michigan’s jobless workers are threatened with loss of federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits in 2012 if HB 4781 is passed as written.

Steve Terrell has the story:

In an affidavit filed in Chapman’s case, Deputy U.S. Marshal Dave Loyer wrote, “Since her state employment ended in February 2011, I learned from the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions that Defendant Chapman applied for unemployment benefits in February 2011, and has been receiving unemployment benefits weekly since March of 2011.”

After resigning as the facilities manager for the Corrections Department in May 2010, Chapman went to work for the state Indian Affairs Department, where she earned $63,124, a spokesman for Gov. Susana Martinez said after Chapman was indicted in April. She was fired from that post Feb. 23.

Normally, unemployment benefits don’t apply if you are fired for misconduct, or resign. The state’s unemployment compensation pays about $745,000 per day (down from $1 million) in benefits, and faces problems with solvency because of high unemployment. Shoring up the fund is on the agenda in the special session. But Chapman is one egregious example of someone who shouldn’t be drawing benefits.

The total amount owed to the federal government is more than $36 billion.