Here's just one reason why Harry Reid and others in a Democratic-controlled Senate are under the gun.
Congress headed home Thursday for a four-day break, after failing again to extend jobless benefits for an estimated 325,000 people, fund summer jobs for at-risk youths or help newly laid-off people pay for health care.
"These are really pressing things, and we want Congress to stay, but it falls on deaf ears," said Judy Conti of the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group.
Funding for extended unemployment benefits ran out June 2 while Congress was in the middle of a 10-day Memorial Day break. The House of Representatives had voted to continue the benefits until Nov. 30, but the Senate hadn't.
The Senate returned Monday night, debated the provisions Tuesday and Wednesday, found widespread disagreement and spent much of Thursday on an unrelated energy bill.
Senators agreed to resume voting next Tuesday. Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the break had been "long planned."
Meanwhile, the National Employment Law Project estimated that 325,000 people won't be able to collect benefits. This is the third time that Congress has missed on a deadline for extending the benefits; it's expected that they'll paid retroactively.
In addition, people laid off after June 1 won't be eligible for government help with their health insurance, and the government's program to fund summer jobs — which had been expected to provide an estimated 330,000 jobs for at-risk youths — remains unfunded and thus stalled. ...McClatchy
