June 12th, 2010

Unemployment Extension And HR 4213, Tier 5, and Tax Extenders Bill Senate Bill.  The Unemployment extension was needed sometime before tiers 1-4 expired for millions of Americans.  These benefits expired on June 2nd, and the Senate left on break for Memorial Day before passing the bill.  Of course, this left many Americans in limbo as they didn’t know what to do now that their benefits were in question.

The reason that the Senate didn’t pass the bill before the break is they wanted to make their own mark on the bill.  That is, they wanted to alter the bill before they passed it.  And alter it they did! They added $24 million in Medicare reimbursements to the states and also decreased tax increases that the House wrote into the bill for venture capitalists and investment managers.

The bill will have to be reconciled by a committee made up of House and Senate members before it can be sent to the President.  If the bill becomes the law, then the unemployment extension will be in effect retroactive to June 2nd and then until November 30, 2010.  There’s no word on a fifth tier of benefits.

We wish there was a fifth tier of benefits in the bill.  Instead of cutting taxes on investment bankers it would be nice if they would give that money to Americans in need.

Source:

OpenCongress.org