Republican Led Federal Stimulus Filibuster Goes Late into the Night

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4/12/2011: Radio Story - The Missouri House passes legislation that would reinstate unemployment benefits for 10,000 Missourians.

4/ 7/2011: Radio Story - Several Republican Senators end their filibuster over extending unemployment benefits for Missourians after accepting a deal from the Senate's leaders.

4/ 6/2011: Radio Story - Senate Republicans ask the governor to compromise federal stimulus money in order to end the unemployment filibuster

Intro:	Tuesday night Republicans in Missouri's Senate filibustered a bill to allow the state to use federal stimulus money.
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Wrap: They were at it again.

The four Republican senators who earlier this year filibustered the bill to extend unemployment benefits were blocking the vote last night on a bill to distribute federal stimulus money in state projects.

St. Louis Republican Senator Jim Lembke said he's concerned about the funds adding to the federal deficit.

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Description: "Those thieves and robbers are going to debate whether we should raise our debt ceiling so that they can spend more."

Earlier this session, Republican leaders agreed to look at cutting up to 250 million dollars in stimulus projects money, but only cut about half of that from the bill.

The four senators said last night they wanted to cut the 41 million dollars of unspent funds from the bill.

Reporting from the state Capitol, I'm Elizabeth Hagedorn.

Intro:	Four senate Republicans filibustered a bill to halt spending of federal stimulus money late into Tuesday night.
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Wrap:

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Description: "Have you noticed Senator that the three of us are the only ones in the chamber?"

Speaking to a near empty chamber, Northwest Missouri Republican Senator Rob Schaaf and three other Republican Senators filibustered a bill to allocate nearly half a billion dollars in stimulus funds.

These are the same four senators who earlier this year filibustered the bill to extend unemployment benefits.

That filibuster ended when they reached a compromise with Republican leaders who pledged to cut up to 250 million dollars in stimulus project money.

But that never happened.

As the delay goes on, the Senate can't talk about other things — like the budget, which has a Friday deadline for passage.

Reporting from the state Capitol, I'm Elizabeth Hagedorn.