Bunning hurls curve, halts aid

Posted on Tue, Mar. 2, 2010

Bunning hurls curve, halts aid

By James Oliphant

Chicago Tribune

WASHINGTON - The federal government furloughed nearly 2,000 workers yesterday, while hundreds of thousands of jobless Americans braced for an end to their unemployment checks and health-insurance benefits, and doctors saw Medicare fees delayed - the result of a one-man roadblock for a Senate spending bill.
At the center of the drama, which began unfolding late last week, is Sen. Jim Bunning (R., Ky.), who singlehandedly held up a bill last week that would have provided a short-term extension for a bundle of federal funding programs that expired yesterday.

Bunning used an arcane Senate procedural tactic to block the $10 billion measure as a way to protest the federal deficit - and drew intense fire from Democrats in the process.

The two-term senator, 78, who is retiring at the end of the year, has said he has opposed the bill because it lacked an offset in spending so that the deficit did not increase.

"If we can't find $10 billion to pay for it, then we're not going to pay for anything," Bunning, a Hall of Fame pitcher with the Phillies, said yesterday.

The bill would have provided a one-month extension for unemployment benefits, including a provision in which the federal government assumed 65 percent of the cost for jobless Americans to buy health insurance from their former employers for 18 months through the COBRA program.

Senate leaders gave Bunning a final shot at allowing those extensions to go through yesterday on the Senate floor, but he renewed his objection.

Now, the Senate is likely to pass a larger package, but not until later this week.

"The net result of one senator's objection is to put us into a procedural process that could take days," said Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D., Ill.). "It's going to create hardship across America."

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs called out Bunning on Friday and yesterday, saying, "Sometimes even using their names doesn't create the shame that you would think it would."

Bunning was able to block the bill because Democratic and Republican leaders in the Senate had signed off on passing it without a floor vote, instead asking that it be approved by unanimous consent - consent that Bunning withheld.

The federal Transportation Department said it was temporarily laying off 2,000 employees without pay starting yesterday and would begin suspending construction projects nationwide because a highway funding program ran out of money. That could be alleviated in days if the Senate acts or if the House passes another bill that extends the program.

While most Republicans distanced themselves from Bunning's action, Democrats on the Hill painted the GOP as obstructionist and used the occasion to marshal public support for using a controversial tactic - budget reconciliation - to pass a health-care overhaul bill later this month.

"Bunning's done more in the past few days to call attention to Republican procedural abuses in the Senate than anything we've seen before," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D., Md.).

The blocked bill also would have kept Medicare reimbursement rates at current levels.
As the result of the hold, the government yesterday began paying 21 percent less than before to doctors who see Medicare patients. Hoping the Senate would act soon to stave off the cuts, the Obama administration directed Medicare billing contractors to hold off processing claims for 10 business days. Medicare normally takes 14 days to pay doctors, so there would be no cuts in reimbursement if lawmakers move quickly.

The American Medical Association issued a blistering statement saying the Senate had made senior citizens "collateral damage to their procedural games."

Also yesterday, some rural satellite-TV subscribers likely lost access to local channels because a copyright law expired, and a Small Business Administration lending program was interrupted.

Just weeks ago, Congress passed legislation requiring that most new programs be paid for rather than add to the deficit. Asked why supporters of these programs don't find a way to pay for them, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.) said: "This is an emergency stopgap."

Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the No. 2 Republican, vowed Sunday that Congress would pass legislation to keep jobless benefits and other government programs funded.

The Senate will act today at the earliest, but approval is likely to be delayed until later in the week. The Senate is now considering a different version of the extension, one that is expected to attract several amendments that could slow it down. Once the Senate passes it, it still must pass the House.
Kentucky Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo, a Democratic candidate for Bunning's seat who narrowly lost to him in 2004, pledged to hold a protest rally if unemployment benefits were not restored. Mongiardo also encouraged Kentuckians to call Bunning's offices to complain.

During the 2004 campaign, Bunning said Mongiardo looked "like one of Saddam Hussein's sons." Mongiardo is an Italian American. Bunning later apologized for the statement.