Opposition in Senate stalls jobless-benefits extension

WASHINGTON — A House-passed bill for an additional 13 weeks of unemployment benefits to people from Washington and 26 other states where the jobless rate is at least 8.5 percent has bogged down in the Senate because of resistance from lawmakers whose states have lower unemployment and would be left out.

With hundreds of thousands having lost their benefits or about to lose them, Senate leaders were scrambling to find a compromise.

The original hope among Democratic leaders was to quickly pass a proposal that would give four extra weeks of benefits to the jobless in all 50 states and 17 weeks to workers in the states where the jobless rate is at least 8.5 percent.

But lawmakers from the 23 states that wouldn't qualify for the greater jobless benefits opposed it.

The House bill passed last week 331-83, with supporters arguing the 8.5 percent threshold was needed to hold down costs and that the measure still covered a large majority of the long-term unemployed in danger of losing benefits.

They said the bill would protect about three-fourths of the 400,000 expected to exhaust benefits in September, and more than 1 million facing a cutoff of assistance by the end of the year.

A report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimated that more than 80 percent of the projected 1.3 million people who will exhaust their benefits by the end of the year come from states where the jobless rate is at least 8.5 percent.

Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Seattle, sponsor of the House bill, said it would cost about $1.4 billion but not add to the federal budget deficit because it would raise money from a one-year extension of a federal unemployment tax, costing about $14 an employee per year.