The senate filibuster that has kept long-term unemployed Missourians from getting another 20 weeks of jobless benefits has been broken..The state is free to get more than 100-milion dollars in federal money to pay those benefits.

The senate leadership has gotten four road-block Senators to abandon their campaign against those funds by promising to cut 250-milion federal stimulus dollars out of an appropriations bill. 

The leader of the four filibustering senators, Jim Lembke of St. Louis, told reporters after the deal, “I won.”   

Lembke and the other three senators started their on-again, off-again filibuster March 1st  The bill was brought up for debate several times last month and each time the senators talked it to the sidelines.

The agreement between Lembke’s group and the senate leadership does not commit the House to agree to anything.  But if it refuses to do so, the state will lose even more federal funds for various projects. 

 Listen to excerpts from Lembke’s news conference 11:06 mp3