Senate Vote Clears Way for $26 BIllion in Aid to States

[Elmore Furth]

Source: NY TImes

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Wednesday cleared the way to provide $10 billion to states and local school districts to prevent teacher layoffs and an additional $16 billion in federal aid to cash-strapped states, prompting calls for the House to return from its summer recess to grant final approval to the bill.

The procedural vote in the Senate was 61 to 38, with the Maine Republicans, Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe, joining all Democrats in support of cutting off a filibuster. Senator David Vitter, Republican of Louisiana, was absent. The Senate is set to approve the measure on Thursday before adjourning for its summer recess.

The vote quickly prompted calls for the House, which left for its summer break last Friday, to return to Washington — a possibility that senior Democratic leadership aides said was under consideration.

The House initially approved the money aimed at preventing some 140,000 teacher layoffs by attaching it to an emergency war spending bill for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the Senate rejected that bill. The cost of the current version is fully paid with spending cuts and a provision to close a tax loophole.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/05/us/politics/05spend.html

[sonias]

1. Thank you Senate Democrats

And House Democrats - because we all know that Republicans hate the American worker especially if they become unemployed.

A great tribute to our President on his birthday!

:toast: :bounce: :woohoo:

[Fearless]

2. As long as this doesn't circumvent local control of education, excellent.

I'd like to see any stipulations to the distributing of such funding.

[KamaAina]

3. This is also huge for health care advocates

While Senate Democrats have found themselves mostly stymied by Republicans in recent efforts to approve new spending, many governors have been clamoring for help as they struggle with balance sheets oozing red ink.

The $16.1 billion in aid to states would increase the federal government’s contribution toward Medicaid costs, allowing states to shift money to other priorities. “We saved people’s jobs,” the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, declared at a news conference after the vote.

This is known as the FMAP (Federal Medicaid Assistance Percentage). It was increased in the stimulus bill; this vote extends that increase. Many states, including CA, had already built the extension into their budgets, then the repukes started playing their little games to hold it up.