Reid: Senate Not Giving Up on Jobless Aid Extension
Tuesday's vote failed
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday the Senate is not finished with trying to restore expired unemployed benefits, despite what he deemed the GOP's "slap in the face" to unemployed Americans.
Also left unfinished after Tuesday's failed votes to extend unemployment insurance is the bruising battle between Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) over the way that the Senate is run. And until there is some resolution to how Reid will handle the consideration of GOP amendments during an election year, passage of a jobless aid bill in the Senate is unlikely to advance.
Each Senate leader said that Tuesday's vote proved the other didn't truly want to extend relief to unemployed Americans. The GOP refused to support two separate proposals to extend benefits after they received an offer from Democrats to vote on a series of amendments but with the catch that Republicans relinquish their right to filibuster the bill.
