WASHINGTON - Jobless Minnesotans would see their unemployment and health benefits extended and the state would get help closing its budget gap under a $150 billion bill passed by the Senate on Wednesday.
The bill, which still faces a vote in the House, would send as much as $430 million to insure the poor in Minnesota at a time when the state faces a crushing deficit and a 7.3 percent unemployment rate.
Facing persistent unemployment across the nation, Democrats in Washington are using their majorities in Congress to push through a flurry of economic provisions under the banner of a jobs agenda that is still taking form.
"Over 200,000 Minnesotans request unemployment benefits every week," said Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn. "Today, we made sure that they can continue to receive them."
The Senate bill passed 62-36, largely along party lines. It would continue tax credits for businesses and individuals, as well as safety-net funding for the unemployed and for state governments that are running out of money.
That includes $25 billion to help states with rising Medicaid costs, which have contributed to Minnesota's $1.2 billion budget deficit.
Just as the Senate passed the bill, hundreds of Minnesotans -- including skilled tradesmen who have been out of work so long their benefits have run out -- rallied at the state Capitol to demand a focus on jobs.
Among them was Jesse Werling, 41, a married father of two who has not worked since late January. In 2009, Werling said, he worked six months.
So how does he make it? "I bake bread, you know, we cook a lot. We keep chickens," said the Stillwater resident.
Despite his unemployment benefits, which already have been extended, "it's just constant uncertainty," said Werling, whose wife no longer works outside the home.
"I avoid as many loans as I can, drive old cars and keep fixing them up," he said. "We try to live as much of a non-consumer lifestyle as we can."
Different approaches
Although Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty has been a frequent critic of federal spending, he has been counting on federal assistance to help balance the state's books and avoid steeper health care cuts.
"It looks like enhanced Medicaid funding may be forthcoming," said Pawlenty spokesman Brian McClung.
Still, the U.S. House has yet to take up the Senate legislation, with the two chambers working on separate and sometimes disparate jobs bills.
For example, the Senate has yet to take up the $75 billion Jobs for Main Street Act that the House passed in December as a signature Democratic jobs initiative. That bill would provide more than $500 million for Minnesota road projects championed by Iron Range DFLer Jim Oberstar, chairman of the House Transportation Committee. On Wednesday, Oberstar expressed frustration with the legislative pace in the Senate, which also has yet to vote on the final version of a $15 billion House bill that would provide tax credits for employers who hire new workers.
"It is encouraging to see the Senate working on the Jobs for Main Street bill, even if they are having to break it into smaller bills and pass them piecemeal," Oberstar said. "Let's hope they can keep their noses to the grindstone."
No source of funding
Meanwhile, House leaders rolled out a new $100 billion spending bill on Wednesday to help state and local governments avoid public sector layoffs. Parts of the bill, including funds for teachers, firefighters and police officers, replicate provisions in the bill the House passed in December.
Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., one of the architects of the new proposal, said the plan could help create a million public and private jobs over the next two years by ensuring that communities around the nation can operate essential services and avoid local tax increases.
"In the 1930s we had massive unemployment and the country responded to the needs of people who were unemployed," Ellison said. "Our generation can't do any less."
One problem: The House bill identifies no new funding sources for the federal aid. Rep. George Miller, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, said that "leadership will have to deal with that."
Asked about the seemingly piecemeal approach to jobs legislation in Congress, Miller said, "It's the messy business of democracy."
The new jobs bill in the House also got a push Wednesday from Burnsville Mayor Elizabeth Kautz, president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. "Municipal governments in Minnesota have been laying off and furloughing people for our 2010 budgets," she said. "And we forecast more layoffs."
Republicans have been critical of public sector jobs initiatives, including the aid to local governments that made up a significant part of last year's massive economic stimulus bill.
"Day after day, the American people are told the federal government's policies will create jobs and spur economic recovery, yet month after month, the jobs report tells us a very different story," said Minnesota Rep. John Kline, the ranking Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee. "Our economy can recover, but it will be in spite of big government, special interest policies -- not because of them."
Only 31 hours worked
Meanwhile, at the state Capitol, unemployed workers talked of the hard times that have befallen them. "[It's] scary," said Kevin Nesset, a 52-year-old unemployed electrician from East Bethel. "My wife is disabled, but she had to come off disability to go back to work."
Nesset has not had a steady job for two years. Last year, he said, he worked a total of 31 hours -- hours, he emphasized, not days.
"To do anything else, I'm going to go out there and probably compete with the high school kids" for a job, said Nesset, who has two children of his own.
"Everything in this world costs money," Nesset said with a sigh. "When you ain't got no money, you don't go do nothin'."
Laura Hampton, 36, an unemployed carpenter, said she considered going to North Dakota for a job. But once she factored in renting a motel room, it was not worth the cost, she said.
"I might have to go back to factory [work]," Hampton said. "McDonald's is not even hiring."
Hampton, of Owatonna, said she worked only one month in 2009. "I just got my second extension" for unemployment benefits, she said.
Clint Milner, another unemployed carpenter, said he was laid off just after Christmas. "I haven't worked this year at all," Milner said as the rally broke up in the State Capitol rotunda.
Milner, who built a new house in Mahtomedi last year, said he and his wife -- they have no children, she works part-time -- were surviving financially because he had taken odd jobs and they had saved money, expecting the worst.
"Ultimately, I have faith that everything will come full circle again," he said.
Kevin Diaz is a correspondent in the Star Tribune Washington Bureau.
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