Senate Panel OKs $5.8 Billion in Emergency Jobless Aid : Recession: Measure would extend benefits for four to 20 additional weeks, with Californians eligible for 13 more. Veto is threatened by Bush.

Acting swiftly on the first anti-recession bill of the year, the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday approved a $5.8-billion emergency extension of unemployment compensation for jobless workers who exhaust their regular benefits.

The bill, approved 16 to 4 despite Bush Administration veto warnings, was put on a fast track so the Senate can complete action on it before Congress recesses next Friday for a month. The House is considering adoption of a similar measure next week.

The legislation could produce a showdown between the Democratic-controlled Congress and the President over an issue that has become particularly sensitive as unemployment hovers in the 7% range nationally and exceeds that level in some hard-hit states.

The Senate legislation would allow jobless workers to collect from four to 20 weeks of additional benefits, depending on the extent of unemployment in each state. It would also shorten waiting periods and prolong unemployment benefits for former members of the armed forces to bring them up to parity with civilians.

The money for the extra unemployment payments would come from an $8-billion trust fund accumulated to pay extended benefits in periods of high joblessness. The trust fund is replenished by unemployment taxes levied on employers.

Despite the popular appeal of the bill, Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said it is too “expensive, expansive and ridiculous” for the President to accept and that it would violate pay-as-you-go provisions of last year’s budget agreement.

But Democrats countered that Bush had requested and received billions of dollars in emergency aid for foreign governments, including relief for Kurdish refugees. He should be willing to do the same for Americans suffering from long-term joblessness, they said.

“The Administration is willing to spend this money for people all over the world but is not willing to do it for people here at home,” said Sen. Donald W. Riegle Jr. (D-Mich.), whose home state has a 9% unemployment rate.

“Cut foreign aid to pay for this,” Dole suggested as the committee debated the measure before all 11 Democrats joined with five of nine Republicans on the panel to approve it. The bill now goes to the Senate floor.

Dole, who voted against the measure, and committee Chairman Lloyd Bentsen (D-Tex.) indicated that they will discuss a possible compromise that would lower the cost of the legislation in an effort to head off Bush’s disapproval.

Under last year’s budget accord, the President must join with Congress in declaring an emergency before a bill that raises spending can become law, unless it is offset by reductions in other outlays or new sources of revenue.

However, advocates of the bill said the persistent, long-term unemployment created by the year-old recession is precisely the kind of emergency that authors of the budget enforcement machinery had in mind.

“During every recession since the Second World War, this government, whether Democratic or Republican, has expanded unemployment benefits beyond 26 weeks,” said Sen. Jim Sasser (D-Tenn.). “It is time . . . to pull together and help American families in desperate need.”

Bentsen said that more than 2 million Americans have lost their jobs during the current recession and that 1.2 million have been out of work for more than six months.

Under the bill, states with a sustained unemployment rate of 8% or more would be able to provide 20 weeks of extra benefits. States with rates of 7% to 8% could extend payments for 13 weeks; those with 6% to 7% could extend benefits for seven weeks, and those with less than 6% could extend benefits for four weeks.

Under the formula in the bill, California would be authorized to extend jobless benefits for 13 weeks, the committee said. The state’s jobless rate jumped to 8.2% in June from 7.7% the previous month, but it has not been above 8% long enough to trigger the 20-week benefit period.

The hard-hit states of Alaska, Maine, Mississippi, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Michigan and West Virginia, plus Puerto Rico, could pay an additional 20 weeks of benefits, the panel calculated.

In the House, a bill likely to be approved by the Ways and Means Committee would give the President an option of declaring an emergency and making payments from the trust fund or triggering an increase in tax payments by employers to offset added costs.

The House bill would create three tiers of additional benefits--10, 15 or 20 extra weeks of payments--geared to state unemployment rates.