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| Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., meets with reporters to urge passage of legislation to restore unemployment insurance benefits which expired Dec. 28, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2014. |
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- Legislation to resurrect long-term jobless legislation stalled
in the Senate on Thursday, triggering recriminations from both sides of
the political aisle despite earlier expressions of optimism that
benefits might soon be restored for more than 1 million victims of the
recession.
Gridlock asserted itself after
majority Democrats offered to pay for a 10-month extension of a
scaled-back program of benefits - then refused to permit Republicans
even to seek any changes.
Instead, Majority
Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., accused Republicans of "continually
denigrating our economy, our president and frankly, I believe, our
country."
But Sen. Dan Coats of Indiana, one
of a half-dozen Republicans who helped advance the bill over an initial
hurdle earlier in the week, said he hadn't been consulted on any
compromise.
Echoing complaints by other
members of his party, he said that under Reid's leadership he has been
relegated to the sidelines. Indiana voters "didn't send me here to be
told just to sit down and forget it," he said.
At
issue was a struggle over the possible resurrection of a program that
expired on Dec. 28, immediately cutting off benefits of roughly $256
weekly for more than 1.3 million hurt by the recession.
The
measure is the first to come before the Senate in the election year,
and since Monday has become ground zero of a competition between the
political parties to appeal to hard-hit victims of the longest recession
in more than a half-century.
While unemployment has receded in recent months, long-term jobless is high by historical standards.
Despite the squabbling, lawmakers in both parties said the effort to find a compromise would continue.
"We're still trying to work through this," said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., whose state has 9 percent unemployment.
At
midday Thursday, Reid had expressed optimism about the chances for
compromise, and Democratic officials said talks with Republicans were
focused on a scaled-back program that is fully paid for and would
provide up to 31 weeks of benefits for the long-term unemployed.
The
officials said the proposal would run through the late fall, and the
price tag - approximately $18 billion - would be offset through cuts
elsewhere in the budget so deficits would not rise.
Reid
told reporters he was "cautiously optimistic" about a compromise
emerging later in the day, and said he had held meetings with fellow
Nevadan Dean Heller, a Republican, but provided no details.
But
midafternoon, when Reid formally outlined the proposal, there was no
evident Republican support for it, and each side accused the other of an
unwillingness to compromise.
Chandler Smith, a
spokeswoman for Heller, said the senator met with Reid and Reed during
the day and has been talking with Republicans as well, although he spent
part of the day at a hospital for repair of a cast.
Heller "remains optimistic, and appreciates that Sen. Reid has been negotiating in good faith to reach a deal," Smith said.
Democrats
initially sought a three-month renewal of the expired program and
opposed paying for it, meaning the $6.4 billion cost would be added to
the deficit.
Republicans countered that any
legislation must be offset by cuts elsewhere in the budget. Among their
proposals was one to delay the requirement for individuals to purchase
health care under "Obamacare," and another to prevent immigrants living
in the United States from claiming a certain type of tax credit for
their children.
They said either would pass
easily, a claim Democrats did not dispute. But rather than exposing his
rank and file to a politically hazardous vote, Reid made sure they were
not formally offered.
The expired law provided
a maximum of 47 weeks of payments after an unemployed worker has
exhausted state-funded benefits, usually 26 weeks.
The
new measure would reduce the 47 weeks to a maximum of 31 weeks,
officials said, based on a sliding scale that dates to the expired
program.
The Democratic officials said the
first tier of additional benefits would be six weeks, and be generally
available to all who have used up their state eligibility.
They
said an additional six weeks would be available in states where
unemployment is 6 percent or higher; an additional nine weeks in states
with joblessness of 7 percent or higher; and 10 more weeks in states
where unemployment is 9 percent or more.
The
cost would be offset in part by extending a previously-approved
reduction in Medicare payments to providers, the officials said, and in
part by limiting or eliminating the ability of individuals on Social
Security disability from also receiving unemployment benefits.
The
officials who described the details of the possible legislation did so
on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to speak on
the record.
