WASHINGTON - Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-MI) today made the following statement after Senate Republicans voted to block a fully-paid for extension of the emergency unemployment insurance program, leaving the measure one vote shy of the 60 required to receive an up-or-down vote for final passage:
“One Republican vote in the Senate is standing in the way of 1.7 million Americans receiving a critical lifeline while they look for work. By the smallest of margins, Senate Republicans are leaving unemployed Americans and the families who they support with the largest of problems. The latest bill in the Senate met the Republican demand that even a short-term extension of federal unemployment benefits be fully paid for. This failure to act is a body blow to the 1.7 million Americans whose unemployment benefits have been cut off as they desperately seek work. It is unconscionable that a straight up-or-down vote that would restore assistance is being blocked."
