Jim Bunning backs down to let $10bn Senate bill pass

Temporary funding in place for unemployment and road programmes after Republican senator ends stalling campaign
Jim Bunning
Republican Jim Bunning wanted to force the Democratic party to find ways to finance the bill without adding to the deficit. Photograph: EPA Michael Reynolds/EPA

The US Senate passed a $10bn measure to maintain unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless and provide stopgap funding for road programmes after a holdout Republican dropped stalling tactics that had generated a political storm in Washington.

Kentucky Republican Jim Bunning had been holding up action for days, resulting in Monday's cut-off of road funding and extended unemployment benefits and health insurance subsidies for the jobless.

Bunning wanted to force Democrats to find ways to finance the bill so that it wouldn't add to the deficit, but his move sparked a political tempest that subjected Republicans to withering media coverage and cost the party politically. Bunning's support among Republicans was dwindling, while Democrats used to being on the defensive about healthcare and the deficit seemed to relish a battle that could reinforce their argument that Republicans are bent on obstructing President Barack Obama's agenda at any cost.

The bill passed by a 78-19 vote and Obama signed it into law late yesterday.

"During these difficult economic times, supporting American workers, their families and our small businesses must be everyone's focus," the president said in a signing statement. "I'm grateful to the members of the Senate on both sides of the aisle who worked to end this roadblock to relief for America's working families."

The bill passed the House of Representatives last week.

Without the legislation, doctors faced the prospect of a 21% cut in Medicare payments, and federal flood insurance programmes had lapsed with Monday's expiration of an earlier stopgap bill. Medicare is the government programme that provides healthcare coverage to the elderly.

Yesterday's action will provide a monthlong extension of the expired programmes to give Congress time to pass a year-long – and far more costly – fix that's also pending.

Without the bill's approval, about 200,000 jobless people would have lost federal benefits this week alone, according to the National Employment Law Project lobby group. Jobless people normally get 26 weeks of unemployment benefits and 20 more weeks in states with higher unemployment rates. The legislation extends several additional layers of benefits added since 2008 because of the recession.

Earlier yesterday, Bunning objected to a request by the Maine senator Susan Collins, a fellow Republican, to pass a 30-day extension of jobless benefits and other expired measures.

When asked if Bunning was hurting the Republican party, Collins said, "He's hurting the American people."

Other Republicans were more diplomatic in their assessments of Bunning, a former star baseball pitcher who has a stubborn and often irascible personality. Bunning is reluctantly retiring at the end of the current term and has a tense relationship with the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, who had taken behind-the-scenes steps to make it harder for Bunning to seek re-election.


Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Senate's No 2 Democrat, said that Bunning was accepting an offer that he had rejected for days.

"As a result … unemployment benefits were cut off for thousands of people across America, assistance for healthcare was cut off across America, thousands of federal employees were furloughed," Durbin said.

Democrats promised to retroactively restore unemployment benefits and healthcare subsidies for the unemployed. The transportation secretary, Ray LaHood, ordered furloughed employees back to work today.

The impasse had led to political gains for Democrats attacking Bunning and his fellow Republicans. Cable news networks carried yesterday's proceedings live and returned to the topic frequently.

"Today we have a clearcut example to show the American people just what's wrong with Washington, DC," the Democratic senator Patty Murray, of Washington state, said. "That is because today one single Republican senator is standing in the way of the unemployment benefits of 400,000 Americans."