The Colorado Independent

Senate likely to approve unemployment benefits extension today

By Annie Lowrey | 07.20.10 | 8:37 am

Today, Congress plans to vote to extend unemployment benefits, which have been held up in the Senate for an unprecedented two months. Lawmakers will reconsider H.R. 4213, also known as the jobs bill or the extenders package, as the vehicle for a $34 billion extension of benefits — retroactive to June 2, when they lapsed, and continuing through the end of November.

In unemployment benefits extension, a logistical headache for states

By Annie Lowrey | 07.19.10 | 8:48 am

On Tuesday, members of the U.S. Senate plan to vote on a federal extension of unemployment benefits, which has been blocked by Republicans for an unprecedented two months. The swearing-in of Carte Goodwin, the temporary replacement for the late Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), will give Democrats the crucial 60th vote to overcome a GOP filibuster and restore unemployment insurance to 2.5 million Americans.

Gridlocked Senate fails again to pass unemployment extension

By Annie Lowrey | 07.01.10 | 8:47 am

WASHINGTON– On Wednesday night, a bare-bones measure to keep federally funded unemployment insurance checks headed to the long-term unemployed failed in the Senate. Moderate Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine had signed on to vote for cloture on the $34 billion bill. But without Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), who passed away earlier in the week, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) — the majority leader who hails from the state with the worst unemployment rate in the country — once again found himself stuck at 59 votes. By the time Byrd’s replacement is in place, in mid-July, two million Americans will have lost their benefits, and the bill extending them will have languished for some 11 weeks.

Reid searching for one more vote to advance unemployment extension bill

By Annie Lowrey | 06.30.10 | 12:28 pm

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is telling reporters today that he has won the votes of two Republicans for his extension of federal unemployment insurance benefits. He says he is one vote away from having 60 senators to vote…

Pelosi draws heat for calling quits on public option

By Mike Lillis | 03.12.10 | 1:09 pm

Just hours after Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., announced that he’d whip “aggressively” for the public option if the House includes it in its reconciliation bill, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., killed the idea. The Washington Post quotes Pelosi saying…

Senate passes historic, if diluted, health reform bill

By Mike Lillis | 12.24.09 | 9:12 am

WASHINGTON– Senate Democrats on Thursday approved the best health care reform bill they could manage: a sweeping $871 billion proposal designed to extend coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and slow the growth of runaway costs. It was at once a monumental achievement, which if signed into law would represent the most expansive overhaul of the nation’s dysfunctional health care system in generations, and a disappointment to many liberals who’d hoped the reforms would go further to rein in the medical-services industries most responsible for the skyrocketing expenses.