Sali opposed unemployment bill

BOISE – U.S. Rep. Bill Sali, R-Idaho, voted against extending federal unemployment benefits earlier this month, just days before Micron Technology Inc. announced it was cutting thousands of jobs.

Sali’s vote now has become a campaign issue in Idaho’s 1st Congressional District, where his Democratic rival, Walt Minnick, said Friday he would have voted to extend the benefits, especially given that unemployment in the state has risen by more than 2 percentage points since January to 5 percent.

“In light of what’s happened with Micron, that vote is indefensible,” said John Foster, a Minnick spokesman.

The $6 billion bill, passed by the U.S. House 368-28 on Oct. 3, would tap the existing federal unemployment trust fund to provide seven additional weeks of payments to those who have exhausted their regular benefits. Under the bill, those in states where the unemployment rate is above 6 percent would be entitled to an additional 13 weeks above the 26 weeks of regular benefits.

Micron, Idaho’s largest employer, said Thursday it was cutting 15 percent of its work force, including 1,500 Boise jobs, a result of declining customer demand and product oversupply that will force it to close a Boise factory that makes memory chips for devices including Apple Computer Inc.’s iPod.

News of the cut at the semiconductor company prompted Sali to issue a statement titled “Micron job losses, stock market plunge require immediate attention by Congress,” in which he said the layoffs were evidence Idaho and the nation were facing “very rough economic times.” He called on Congress to reconvene “to take up legislation that will actually help solve the problem.”

Still, Sali’s opposition to extending unemployment benefits is unchanged, his aides said.

“It’s an increase in entitlement spending by $6 billion. It’s more deficit spending,” said spokesman Wayne Hoffman, who also criticized the measure’s provisions promising enhanced benefits for states with high unemployment. With Idaho’s 5 percent rate in September, workers here would be eligible for fewer weeks of benefits than those in harder-hit states.

“What do you say to the Micron worker who is receiving a smaller benefit just because he or she happens to live in Idaho?” Hoffman said.

In the Oct. 3 vote, 142 Republicans joined 226 Democrats who backed the bill.

Minnick’s campaign said Sali’s “no” vote with fewer than three dozen other lawmakers was an example of the first-term Idaho congressman’s affiliation with a sliver of GOP House lawmakers who refuse to cooperate or compromise.

“As the economy has tightened, the one tiny reed of hope has been, you’re seeing a little bit more bipartisanship,” Foster said. “Maybe people didn’t agree on the bailout, but they certainly agree on things like extending unemployment benefits in times of trouble. It’s disturbing that Congressman Sali would be on the wrong side of that vote.”

Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, supported the bill.

Hoffman said Sali doesn’t gauge his votes on whether they are popular, but on whether they are right for Idaho residents.

Sali and Minnick both opposed the $700 billion bailout for the financial industry that Congress passed last week.

Through Oct. 10 in Idaho, 6,301 people who had lost their jobs had exhausted their state unemployment insurance benefits, according to the Idaho Department of Labor. So far, those people have received a total of $10.2 million in extended federal unemployment benefits, the result of a measure passed by Congress in June that was included in a $162 billion bill to fund wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Chances of the latest unemployment benefit extension bill passed by the House becoming law this year are unclear.