Boehner backs Bunning's efforts

While Senate Republicans have started to bail on Sen. Jim Bunning and his one-man Senate filibuster, House Minority Leader John Boehner is backing the Kentucky Republican’s efforts to stall an unemployment benefits, COBRA and highway funding bill.

“I think Sen. Bunning has a legitimate argument he’s making. The Democrats just passed this pay-go legislation, and not even a week after the president signed it into law, they want to exempt the first bill that comes to the Senate floor,” Boehner said in a press conference Tuesday.

Earlier Tuesday, Sen. Susan Collins criticized the Bunning for holding up federal unemployment benefits, telling POLITICO that “Sen. Bunning’s views do not represent the majority of the Republican caucus.” Sen. Jim Inhofe said he was concerned about the political backlash that might stem from Bunning’s stand, which resulted in the furlough of thousands of Department of Transportation employees this week.

“He has the right as a senator to express his will,” Boehner said.

Boehner didn’t criticize Sen. Mitch McConnell’s handling of Bunning. “I have an agreement with Sen. McConnell,” Boehner said. “I don’t deal with the Senate, and he doesn’t deal with Congress.”

Earlier in the day, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) pointed to the episode as a sign of the Senate’s dysfunction.

“The Senate has got to come to a place where the Senate has the ability to function,” Hoyer said, suggesting it was time to reconsider the filibuster. “The processes of the United States Senate where they have one of 100 stopping legislation shows why it is necessary to go back to the process, tried and true, of having majorities [that] have the ability to act.”