$16.1B to help with Medicaid payments in 2011, $10B to avoid teacher layoffs.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called the House of Representatives back early from vacation in order to vote on the state aid bill. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)The House of Representatives are being called back early from their summer vacation in order to take on a $26.1 billion state-funding bill which will, in part, help states keep teacher jobs.
Members are expected to review the bill on Monday and vote Tuesday.
"As millions of children prepare to go back to school -- many in just a few days -- the House will act quickly to approve this legislation once the Senate votes," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement to CNN last week. “I am calling members of the House back to…pass this bill and send it to President Obama without further delay.”
The new measure will give state governors $16.1 billion to help with Medicaid payments in 2011. The other $10 billion will be used to help state and local school boards avoid teacher layoffs.
CNN reports House Democratic leaders began discussing the move after the Senate moved on with the bill last week, which was an unexpected advancement.
“The sudden turnaround followed twin 61-38 Senate votes in which Maine Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe joined in support of the $26.1 billion measure after Democrats agreed to pay for the costs with cuts from their own priorities, including food stamps for the poor,” Politico reports.
The House must approve the bill before it can go to President Obama to be signed into law.
"The American people don't want more 'stimulus' spending -- particularly spending for labor unions attached to a job-killing tax increase," Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, told CNN. "Democrats would be better off listening to their constituents, who are asking, 'Where are the jobs,' rather than returning to Washington, D.C. to vote for more tax hikes and special interest bailouts."
The House began summer vacation at the end of last month. Members weren't expected to be back until mid-September.
The last time Congress was called back early from summer recess was in 2008 when lawmakers debated giving aid to the auto industry. A vote for emergency supplemental funds after Hurricane Katrina happened brought them back from summer vacation early in 2005 as well.