Saying the overtime issue isn’t dead and an alarming number of jobless are running out of unemployment benefits without finding work, Democrats will try to attach amendments to any coming fast-track legislation that would protect overtime pay and provide another 13 weeks of federal unemployment benefits.
Last week, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) said she is sponsoring a bill that would continue the Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation program for 13 weeks. The federal jobless benefits program, which provides additional aid to people who exhaust their regular state benefits, ended Dec. 20.
Those who qualified before that date will receive the full 13 weeks. But the estimated 375,000 unemployed who run out of state benefits in January will not be eligible for additional aid unless Congress acts, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington.
“We’re trying to add it to any existing vehicle we possibly can latch onto,” Clinton said of the proposal, co-sponsored by Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.).
Opponents of the Labor Department’s proposed new overtime rules are looking to do the same thing with an amendment that would block any attempts to deny workers overtime pay. Recent efforts to attach the Harkin amendment, sponsored by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), to the federal spending bill were defeated by the White House and Senate Republicans.
“We won’t stop there. If the rule becomes effective, we’ll have other opportunities to reverse it, and we’re confident we will,” said Bill Samuel, legislative director for the AFL-CIO in Washington, a labor union official and chief critic of the proposed changes to white-collar overtime exemptions.
Just a few months ago, several Senate Republicans joined Democrats in support of the Harkin amendment. They also supported the previous two unemployment benefits extensions, though not the 26 weeks that Democrats had initially sought.
But now that the 2004 election year is heating up, bipartisan support is hard to come by. That’s especially true in regard to overtime and unemployment benefits, two issues on which Republicans, touting recent economic growth, and Democrats, pointing to a continued lack of jobs, stand miles apart.
Democrats argued the poor jobs showing in December–the government said only 1,000 new jobs were created–is evidence that the recovery remains sluggish and benefits should be extended. But so far Smith is the only Republican who has signed on to the extension bill.
“All the stuff about people not being able to find jobs I guess they think is Democratic rhetoric,” said Clinton, adding there was no way she was going to get support for a 26-week extension, so she compromised at 13 weeks. “Smith is under pressure not to be on this bill at all. It’s not what I would’ve wanted, but it’s as good as we’ve got.”
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, nearly 2 million people will run out of state benefits during the first six months of 2004.
President Bush has spoken out in favor of extending benefits in the past, but has remained silent on the issue while on the campaign trail. Clinton criticized the president for not supporting a third extension of federal benefits as his father did following the recession of the early 1990s. She also issued a stinging indictment of businesses that continue to move jobs abroad while so many remain jobless at home.
“I’m disappointed in the leadership of the business community,” Clinton said.”Something has changed in the last 20 years. It didn’t used to be like that.”
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Hear T. Shawn Taylor on WBBM-AM 780 at 6:21 p.m. and 10:22 p.m. Tuesdays and 7:52 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. E-mail staylor@tribune.com.
