Movement on Unemployment Benefit Extension?
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) threatened to hold a midnight vote yesterday to proceed to long-delayed legislation extending unemployment insurance for up to 20 weeks. That vote didn’t happen, but it might not have to. Reid’s office said this morning that party leaders “should be able” to reach agreement to skip that step and move the bill directly to the floor. No timeline was mentioned.
As we described yesterday, proceeding to a bill is not the same thing as passing a bill, and there could be a long way to go even after the legislation reaches the Senate floor.
Although party leaders reached a tentative agreement yesterday on the home-buyer tax credit amendment, there’s no indication that the ACORN, immigration and funding disagreements are any closer to resolution today than they were three weeks ago when Republicans first blocked the bill’s passage.
