Reid, Senate Dems Achieve Breakthrough on State Aid

WASHINGTON, Aug. 4 — Despite pleas for financial help from struggling state and city governments, congressional Democrats spent much of the summer legislative session unsuccessfully struggling to pass an education jobs bill in the face of Republican resistance and public anxiety over the federal deficit. But in one of its final votes before departing for the August recess, Senate Democrats unexpectedly managed to cobble together enough votes to clear the way for a deficit-neutral plan that could receive swift House approval.

With the aid of two Republicans, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., today managed to overcome a GOP filibuster of a $26 billion package of formula grant funds and extended federal Medicaid assistance designed to ease the budget crisis confronting many states and cities. The bill (H.R. 1586) would award $10 billion to local educational agencies to mitigate budget-related teacher layoffs, as well as an additional $16 billion to extend the heightened Federal Medicaid Assistance Percentages (FMAP) enacted by last year’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.