WASHINGTON — The effort to end a Senate standoff over unemployment benefitsand health coverage for the jobless escalated on Tuesday morning as Senator Susan Collins, the moderate Republican from Maine, became the latest lawmaker, and the first Republican, to try to override the objection of Senator Jim Bunning, Republican of Kentucky.
The White House, meanwhile, called Mr. Bunning’s actions “irrational.”
Ms. Collins took the floor shortly after the Senate convened. Her effort was being made on “behalf of numerous members of the Republican caucus who have expressed concerns to me.”
“There are 500 Mainers whose benefits expired on Sunday,” Ms. Collins said. But Mr. Bunning, her colleague, continued to lodge his objection.
The effort by a Republican to end Mr. Bunning’s fight showed that the intensifying dispute is become a serious distraction in the Senate and a political liability for Republicans.
The White House spokesman’s criticism was couched in unusually strong language at a time when the administration is trying to be seen as searching for bipartisan comity.
“I don’t know how you negotiate with the irrational,” Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, told reporters at an informal morning briefing. “I don’t know how you prevent one person who decides they hold in the palm of their hand the livelihood of hundreds of thousands who have lost their jobs.”
Mr. Bunning has single-handedly blocked consideration of a bill to extend expiring unemployment and related health benefits for 30 days, arguing that the Senate should first find a way to pay for the expense.
