A 78-19 vote clears the way for road projects; Obama signs the bill.
Tulsa World
By JIM MYERS World Washington Bureau
Published: 3/3/2010 2:28 AM
Last Modified: 3/3/2010 3:33 AM
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate broke a days-long impasse Tuesday and easily approved a bill temporarily restoring federal funds to road projects in Oklahoma and other states as well as unemployment benefits and other programs.
The vote was 78-19, and President Barack Obama signed it into law late Tuesday.
Oklahoma's two Republican senators split their votes, with Jim Inhofe voting for the bill and Tom Coburn voting against it.
Funds for the programs expired over the weekend after U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., repeatedly blocked a vote on the short-term funding legislation because its costs were not offset with cuts elsewhere.
That led to a furlough of nearly 2,000 federal transportation employees, halted jobless benefits, allowed a cut in Medicare payments to doctors to kick in and threatened eventually to shut down road projects.
Bunning, a Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher who is not running for re-election, had stuck to his objection as Democrats took turns hammering him over the pain he was causing unemployed Americans...
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Wed, March 3, 2010
by Crystal Drwenski