Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Jobless benefit bill taken up

Senate to consider 20-week extension

Jim Abrams Associated Press

WASHINGTON – After weeks of political haggling, the Senate agreed Tuesday to take up legislation that would give people running out of unemployment insurance benefits up to 20 more weeks of federal aid.

Senate Democrats, saying that 7,000 people a day are exhausting their benefits, called on their colleagues to move quickly to a final vote. Republicans insisted they get a chance to offer amendments on the benefit bill and other issues.

Also in play was the possibility the bill would be used as a vehicle to extend another policy that has been central to the Obama administration’s efforts to revive the economy: an $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers.

The vote was 87-13 to bring the bill to the floor. Sixty votes were needed to pass that procedural hurdle.

The legislation would provide 14 weeks in extra financial aid for everyone exhausting their benefits by the end of the year, and another six weeks for those living in 27 states where the unemployment rate is at least 8.5 percent.

The House passed a less generous benefit extension more than a month ago, but Senate Republicans, at odds with Democrats over what amendments they can offer to the bill, have blocked Senate consideration.

As the Senate voted, Senate leaders were still trying to reach agreement on a formula to extend the homebuyer credit and whether it would be combined with the unemployment bill or brought up separately. The Senate expected to begin taking up amendments today.

Various proposals are on the table, including one by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., that would extend the $8,000 tax credit through March 31. The value of the credit would then drop to $6,000, $4,000 and then $2,000 over the next three quarters. Another idea would extend the tax credit to homebuyers who already own homes, as long as they have been in those homes for at least seven years.

Democrats are also mulling a plan to extend the ability of money-losing businesses to claim refunds on taxes paid during profitable times up to four years ago.

Republicans, meanwhile, were demanding that they be given a chance to offer amendments on federal aid to the beleaguered community activist group ACORN and on requiring that people receiving unemployment insurance be processed through E-Verify, an Internet-based system that employers use to check on the immigration status of new hires.