Single US senator freezes unemployment payment

Tue Mar 2, 2010

BBC News

Some 2,000 construction workers building road projects across the US have been sent home after a senator blocked a bill to extend payments.

Republican Jim Bunning single-handedly blocked the legislation, saying it would add to the deficit.

He used procedural tactics to delay the bill and a new vote will now have to be taken, possibly next week.

Doctors and the unemployed may also be affected by failure of a bill to extend payments for government projects.