Democrats May Force All-Night Session [View All]

Source: Roll Call


Democrats May Force All-Night Session
By John Stanton
Roll Call Staff
March 2, 2010, 4:40 p.m.


Democrats are hoping to turn the procedural tables on Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) and use Senate rules to break his blockade against an extension of unemployment insurance, including possibly forcing a round-the-clock session.

Newly energized Democrats, who believe they have gained the political upper hand thanks to Bunning’s one-man crusade against the short-term benefits extension, rejected outright a Republican proposal to allow three votes on pay-fors for the bill before a vote on final passage. Bunning has demanded the measure, which would run for one month at a cost of $10 billion, be paid for.

“We’re not having four votes,” Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday following a weekly Conference luncheon in which Democrats rejected the GOP offer. Although Reid and his colleagues are willing to allow one vote on a pay-for — the original agreement Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) cut last week — they see no reason to go further in mollifying Bunning.

Although no final decisions have been made, Democrats confirmed it is increasingly likely that Democrats will force Bunning into an actual filibuster of unemployment insurance extension Tuesday night by repeatedly offering up unanimous consent agreements to bring the bill to a vote.

Read more: http://www.rollcall.com/news/43730-1.html