Bush Supports Extending Jobless Benefits

By Deb Reichmann

WASHINGTON -- With weekly jobless claims benefits at a 16-year high, the White House said Thursday that President George W. Bush would quickly sign legislation pending in Congress to provide further unemployment benefits.

The Senate this week is expected to take up a bill, already passed by the House, that would extend unemployment insurance checks for up to 13 additional weeks for jobless people whose benefits have run out. The Senate vote could occur as early as Thursday evening and would require support from 60 senators to pass.

White House press secretary Dana Perino, discussing the worsening economic environment, said Bush is "always concerned" when people lose their jobs and is eager to help.

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% of the labor force.

The White House earlier had threatened to veto a much broader $61 billion stimulus bill that included aid to help states maintain Medicaid benefits and new spending for public works projects, in addition to the jobless benefit extension.

Bush's advisers had taken no position on the stand-alone jobless benefits bill, which costs about $6 billion, other than to say they were firmly opposed to Democratic efforts this week to combine it with a $25 billion bailout of the auto industry that would be drawn from the financial rescue package.

Republicans blocked Senate consideration of the unemployment aid bill in October, but that was before a nearly quarter million additional layoffs that month. The Senate vote occurs at a time when the economy is taking its worst beating in a quarter century.