Newest senator to be pressed into action on jobless benefits
Carte Goodwin is being put to work right away in Washington, with the first vote of his Capitol Hill career set to take place Tuesday within minutes after he is sworn in as the newest senator from West Virginia.
Goodwin will be sworn into office at 2:15 p.m. as the successor to the late Sen. Robert Byrd. At 2:30 p.m., the Senate is scheduled to take a cloture vote as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada will attempt for a fourth time in the past month to end a Republican filibuster on unemployment insurance payments.
The quick turnaround underscores the significance of the jobless checks, both as a matter of economics to the 2.5 million people who have run out of benefits, and to the Democrats who believe they have a winning issue.
Short of some surprise development, Goodwin would be the key 60th vote enabling Reid and Democrats to break the filibuster and further portray themselves as the party of compassion for Americans down on their fortunes.
On Monday, President Barack Obama accused Republicans of blocking the bill for political advantage. Reid was more direct in a Senate speech.
Republicans "look at a crisis for families' budgets and see an opportunity for their political fortunes," Reid said. " They think that when unemployment goes up, so do their poll numbers."
Reid read an email from Scott Headrick, a Las Vegas man who said he has been unemployed since July 2008 and has left his wife and five children behind while he seeks work in other states, so far without success.
"I and my family have already lost everything but each other," according to Headrick's note read by Reid.
"He sends out résumés and goes to job interviews, but for months and months he's heard nothing but 'no,' Reid said. "What a shame it is that he's hearing the same from Republicans in the Senate."
Republicans say they would support extending the benefits if their cost, about $34 billion, were offset with budget cuts elsewhere. GOP motions to pay for the unemployment benefits with unobligated stimulus funds have been rejected by the Democratic majority.
"Everyone agrees on extending the additional unemployment insurance, but the Democrat way is to insist we add it to the national debt at the same time, while blocking Republican efforts to pass the same extension without the debt," Don Stewart, spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told Associated Press.
The benefit extension the Senate is working to finalize this week would carry through November. At that time, it is likely Obama will ask for it to be extended again, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said this afternoon.
"I think it is fair and safe to assume that we are not going to wake up and find ourselves at the end of November at a rate of employment one would not consider to be an emergency," Gibbs told reporters.
