99er NEWS ALERT: HR 589 Meeting on Capitol Hill set for Thursday

99er NEWS ALERT: The long awaited meeting between House Democrats and Republican leadership on HR 589, will finally take place this Thursday.

Even though a recent meeting at the White House with CBC (Congressional Black Caucus) leader Representative Emmanuel Cleaver appeared to have sounded the death knell for HR 589 - seems GOP leadership and HR 589 co-authors will still stage a dog and pony show for appearances sake.

[For more on the meeting between Cleaver and Obama please read:

CBC Leader Cleaver Abandons 99ers / H.R. 589 ]

If recent history shows us anything, it would appear that there has been a long standing unwritten policy for members of Congress (both House and Senate) to merely “APPEAR” to attempt to try and help those suffering in America - when they save the real heroics (and tax payer dollars) to take action aiding overseas countries only.

According to the Washington Independent:

The meeting that House GOP leaders said they would have with the two legislators who are pushing for the establishment of a Tier 5 for unemployment insurance that would give an additional 14 weeks of benefits for the long-term jobless will happen on Thursday.


House GOP leaders will meet Thursday, April 7, in Washington DC with Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Bobby Scott (D-Va.) to discuss proposed legislation to extend unemployment benefits by 14 weeks for the long-term jobless, via Tier 1 of the Federal UI Extensions.

Lee and Scott initially proposed the bill be passed as emergency spending and not subject to pay-go rules. However, Lee sent a letter to GOP leaders last month requesting the meeting to discuss ways to offset the $16 billion cost of the extension in the federal budget in an attempt to get the bill passed by any means necessary.

This blogger did confirm with the staff of both Reps. Scott and Lee that the meeting is indeed set for tomorrow, though neither staff would go on record as expecting a positive outcome for HR 589 to be included in the current budget when passed.

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