[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/POLITICS/03/02/jobless.benefits.bill/t1main.jim.bunning.gi.jpg caption="Sen. Jim Bunning says that if the benefits are so important, senators could find a way to fund them."]
Washington (CNN) - The Senate voted Tuesday to pass a $10 billion measure to extend benefits for unemployed workers and fund road projects after Sen. Jim Bunning agreed to end his filibuster.
"We cannot keep adding to the debt and passing the buck to generations of future workers and taxpayers, my children and your children and our grandchildren," Bunning said on the Senate floor after the agreement to end his filibuster was reached. "Tonight, tomorrow and on every spending bill in the future, we will see if they (Democrats) mean business on controlling the debt or if it's just words. We will see if pay-go has any teeth or not."
Bunning blamed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for Bunning's almost week-long block of a vote on the 30-day extensions and said his amendment would remove "black liquor" - a byproduct of the pulp and paper process - from eligibility for a bio-fuels producer tax credit, saving $24 billion.
But Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said that very action is already part of a bill that will came up for a vote Wednesday - the long-term extension of those jobless benefits.
"The senator from Kentucky, after one week, has decided to accept exactly what was offered to him last week," Durbin said. "The senator from Kentucky said 'No, I may lose. I am not going to offer an amendment, I am just going to object.'"
Durbin urged a rejection of Bunning's amendment, saying passing it would further delay benefits already delayed by Bunning's filibuster. FULL STORY