Congress rushes to extend jobless benefits
WASHINGTON -- Jarred by new jobless alarms, Congress hurriedly approved legislation today to keep unemployment checks flowing through the December holidays and into the new year for a million or more laid-off Americans whose benefits were running out.
The Senate's vote followed Thursday's report that laid-off workers' new claims for jobless aid had reached a 16-year high and the number of Americans searching for work had surged past 10 million.
The White House, which had opposed broader legislation containing the benefits extension, urged passage of the new version and said President George W. Bush would quickly sign it.
As Congress prepared to leave town -- perhaps for the year -- there was no such resolution on helping the auto industry, a disaster in the making that could lead to hundreds of thousands if not millions of additional lost jobs. Democratic leaders said they could return to Washington in mid-December to vote on rescue loans if the carmakers first present a plan on transforming and modernizing their operations.
Discouraged by the stalemate over auto aid, investors sent the Dow Jones industrials down to another big loss, more than 400 points.
As for the jobless benefits, about 1.1 million people would exhaust their unemployment insurance by the end of the year without the extension, sponsors said. The measure is estimated to cost about $6 billion.
"The numbers cry out for an extension of unemployment insurance and a strong stimulus package now rather than later," declared Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., before the Senate approved the jobless provision by voice vote. The House approved it in October.
More than 1.2 million jobs have been lost so far this year, and the civilian jobless rate is at a 14-year high of 6.5 percent.
Thursday's Labor Department report said claims for unemployment benefits jumped last week to 542,000 the highest level since July 1992 and fresh evidence of a rapidly weakening job market that is expected to get even worse next year.
The legislation as approved would provide seven additional weeks of payments to people who have exhausted their benefits. Those in states where the unemployment rate is above 6 percent would be entitled to an additional 13 weeks above the 26 weeks of regular benefits. Benefit checks average about $300 a week nationwide.
