[jsfg_cinti] Unemployment Benefits Update

To all members,

This is the news most of us wanted to hear about ...


Stimulus bill passes to Senate
(Mar. 07, 2002 - 19:10)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Reaching compromise on a fourth try at recession relief, the 
House overwhelmingly passed legislation Thursday that combines business tax 
cuts with an extension of jobless benefits for millions of people.

"We've finally arrived at the right balance," said Rep. Tim Roemer, D-Ind.  

The vote was 417-3 to send the bill to the Senate, where three previous 
House-passed Republican economic recovery packages have languished. This time, 
Democrats said it appears likely the Senate will send the measure to President 
Bush.

"We've reached a tenuous consensus here," said House Minority Leader Dick 
Gephardt, D-Mo.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., called the GOP effort "long overdue 
and awfully late." He reserved judgment until all details are reviewed but 
added that the bill appeared to "deserve our support."

"We're pleased with the decision of the Republican leadership," Daschle told 
reporters.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., bristled at the notion that the House GOP 
was to blame for the delay, arguing that it was the Senate that failed to act 
for months.

"We would not back down," Hastert told reporters. "We did not raise the white 
flag."

The vote came as Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told the Senate 
Banking Committee the economy already is expanding faster than expected and 
that extending unemployment benefits is a "most reasonable approach."

Bush had been pushing for a broader economic stimulus since the Sept. 11 terror 
attacks exacerbated a downturn. He told a Hispanic business group Wednesday 
that Congress should act despite evidence that the economy is recovering.

"I think the economy has still got problems. ... I still think we ought to do 
more," Bush said. "There needs to be a stimulus bill."

White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said the president would sign the 
bill into law even though it is a scaled-back version of the original stimulus 
proposal.

"The president is concerned that we don't have a jobless recovery," Fleischer 
said. "It's a compromise. The president is saying today he will support a 
compromise."

The legislation, costing an estimated US$94 billion over five years, would 
extend regular 26-week jobless benefits by 13 weeks and allow for additional 
automatic extensions in states with high unemployment rates. It would give 
businesses a three-year, 30 per cent tax write-off for new investment and a 
more generous way to deduct losses.

It also creates a "Liberty Zone" in the lower Manhattan section of New York in 
which US$5 billion in various tax breaks would be available to help the city 
recover from the attacks. In addition, the bill would extend a list of popular 
tax breaks that have expired or will do so this year.

Discarded were provisions from earlier versions that had drawn Democratic 
opposition, including accelerated income tax rate reductions, bigger tax breaks 
for corporations and a tax credit to help the jobless buy health insurance.

Democrats had been pressing Republicans to pass a simple unemployment benefits 
extension, pointing to the estimated 1.3 million people who have exhausted 
their regular 26 weeks of aid since Sept. 11. In January, there were about 7.9 
million unemployed people in America.

The decision to go with a consensus approach came after House GOP leaders ran 
into criticism at a Wednesday meeting of the rank and file, when some lawmakers 
questioned an earlier, tentative decision to vote on a bill combining a health 
care tax credit with an extension of jobless aid.

Several GOP aides, speaking on condition of anonymity, said lawmakers objected 
to continued delays on recession relief as the November elections draw closer.

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