By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — A bill to extend unemployment benefits through the end of the year and extend a number of tax cuts that expired at the end of last year passed in the U.S. Senate today with the help of Arkansas Democrats Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor.
Also today, Pryor said he is open to using the process known as reconciliation to push health care legislation through the Senate.
Six Republicans joined all but one Democrat, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, to pass the American Workers, State and Business Relief Act in a 62-36 vote. The bill now heads to the House.
“We have about 8,000-8,300 Arkansans who will lose their unemployment insurance by March 13 if we don’t pass this bill,” Pryor said in a conference call with reporters. “I think overall it’s going to be good for the state.”
Critics have said the bill is too costly, adding more than $100 billion to the deficit.
In a separate conference call today, Lincoln said the bill passed with a $1.5 billion package of agricultural disaster assistance that she proposed.
“This disaster relief package is going to maintain 270,000 Arkansas jobs that agriculture provides and ensure that agriculture can continue to contribute more than $9 billion each year to the state’s economy,” she said.
The bill also would extend tax breaks for producers of biodiesel fuels, short-line and regional railroad companies and timber producers, among others, Lincoln and Pryor said.
On the subject of health care reform, Pryor was asked Wednesday about the possibility of using the process known as reconciliation to pass legislation in the Senate with a simple majority vote, thereby avoiding a Republican filibuster.
“It’s not my first choice, but under the circumstances I’ll consider it,” Pryor said. “I’m at least open to it.”
A day earlier, Lincoln said she continued to oppose using reconciliation, saying “we must get over this final hurdle using the regular rules of the Senate.”
Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, who is challenging Lincoln in a Democratic primary in the Senate race, said Tuesday he supports using the reconciliation process to put health care legislation to a simple-majority vote in the Senate.
