Lone lawmaker triggers federal furloughs

WASHINGTON — The federal government Monday began to furlough workers, while hundreds of thousands of jobless Americans nationwide braced for an end of their unemployment checks and health-insurance benefits while doctors saw fees for treating Medicare patients decline — the result of a one-man roadblock for a Senate spending bill.

At the center of the drama, which began to unfold late last week, was Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., who single-handedly blocked a bill last week that would have provided a short-term extension for a bundle of federal funding programs that expired March 1.

Bunning used one of the Senate's arcane procedural tactics to hold up the measure, as a way of protesting against the federal deficit — drawing intense fire from Democrats in the process.

Bunning, who is retiring at the end of the year, has said he has opposed the bill because it doesn't include an offset in spending so that the federal deficit doesn't increase. "I hope the American people understand my serious objections," he said.

Senate leaders gave Bunning a final shot at allowing the unemployment insurance and COBRA health-insurance extensions to go through Monday afternoon on the Senate floor, but he renewed his objection.

Now, the Senate is likely to pass a larger package, but not until later this week.

"The net result of one senator's objection is to put us into a procedural process that could take days," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the Senate whip. "It's going to create hardship across America."

Durbin said Bunning's action would result in 400,000 people nationwide going without an unemployment check, with that number rising each day.

Bunning was able to block the bill because both Democratic and Republican leaders in the Senate had signed off on passing it without a floor vote, instead asking that it be approved by unanimous consent. Bunning withheld his consent Thursday and continued to do so into Monday evening.

The federal Department of Transportation said it was temporarily laying off 2,000 employees without pay starting Monday and would begin suspending construction projects nationwide because a highway-funding program ran out of money — something that could be alleviated in days if the Senate acts or if the House passes another bill that extends the program.

While most Republicans have distanced themselves from Bunning's action, that didn't stop Democrats on the Hill from painting the GOP as obstructionist and using the occasion to marshal public support for using a controversial tactic — budget reconciliation — to pass a health-care bill later this month.

"Bunning's done more in the past few days to call attention to Republican procedural abuses in the Senate than anything we've seen before," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.

The bill Bunning held up would have extended provisions that were included in last year's stimulus, including one in which the federal government assumed 65 percent of the cost of COBRA benefits. It also would have perpetuated other key programs, including one that would maintain Medicare reimbursement rates.

On Monday, the government began paying doctors who see Medicare patients more than 20 percent less than before. In addition, some rural satellite-TV subscribers likely lost access to local channels and a Small Business Administration lending program was interrupted.

The American Medical Association (AMA) signaled its displeasure Monday in a blistering statement, saying the Senate had made senior citizens "collateral damage to their procedural games."

"Physicians are outraged because the cut, combined with the continued instability in the system, will force them to make difficult practice changes including limiting the number of Medicare patients they can treat," said AMA President J. James Rohack.

In Illinois, a spokesman for the Department of Employment Security, Greg Rivara, said if the Senate acts quickly enough this week, "We might be able to turn it around in time so that there will not be an interruption of benefit payments." Otherwise, Rivara said, 15,000 beneficiaries would start coming off the state unemployment rolls each week.