Unemployment benefit bill blocked by Bunning would also extend ambulance Medicare increase

By JOHN HULTGREN
Kentucky EMS Connection

LOUISVILLE — The Senate reached a deal Tuesday night that ended Sen. Jim Bunning's blockade of a bill that has captured the country's attention and has lead most Republicans to distance themselves from the senator.

The Bunning dispute involves a bill, passed unanimously by the House, that will extend unemployment insurance benefits and Cobra health-insurance payments for 30 days, until the longer extension kicks in.

The measure also provides an extension of the Ambulance Add-On. This provision extends the increased Medicare rates for ambulance services, including in super rural areas, through Dec. 31, 2010. This proposal is estimated to cost approximately $100 million over ten years.

The measure also prevents a 21% cut in Medicare payments to doctors and extends federal subsidies for state transportation projects.

The agreement allowed Mr. Bunning (R., Ky.), who had complained that the $10 billion bill was not paid for, to offer an amendment that would have funded the legislation by rescinding a tax credit for a paper manufacturing byproduct.

His amendment failed 53-43 on a procedural vote, largely along party lines. After that, Mr. Bunning lifted his block of the underlying bill, which passed 78-19, with 21 Republicans joining 57 Democrats in favor.

Mr. Bunning had argued that the unemployment bill violated congressional rules requiring that new initiatives be paid for. Democrats said the bill was an emergency measure, exempting it from those rules. Democrats appeared to be winning the public relations battle as more than 100,000 Americans saw their unemployment benefits dry up.

Democrats also agreed to let Mr. Bunning offer two amendments this week proposing ways of paying for a longer-term extension of unemployment benefits and other programs.

After the deal was reached Tuesday night, Mr. Bunning reiterated his argument that federal spending was out of control.

"If we cannot pay for a bill that all 100 senators support, how can we tell the American people with a straight face that we will ever pay for anything?" he said. "That is what senators say they want, and that is what the American people want."

Democrats said Mr. Bunning had been offered the same deal last week but refused to take it.

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