Congress Passes Bill Extending Jobless Benefits

In a direct challenge to President Bush, the House gave final congressional approval Friday to a $5.8-billion emergency extension of unemployment compensation for jobless workers who have exhausted their regular benefits.

Acting by a bipartisan majority vote of 375 to 45 on the first anti-recession measure of the year, the House adopted the Senate-passed bill and sent it to the President, despite White House contentions that the recession is ending.

Democratic leaders rushed the legislation through Congress before departing on a monthlong August recess, partly to confront the President with a choice of accepting it or taking the politically risky course of appearing to turn his back on millions of unemployed.

The bill, which would take effect Sept. 1 and expire next July 4, would provide four, seven, 13 or 20 weeks of additional unemployment compensation, with the length of the extension geared to each state’s average jobless rate over the last six months. Bush deferred a decision on whether to accept or reject the bill.

For the measure to take effect, the President would have to sign it and declare that extending benefits for an estimated 6 million unemployed Americans would constitute an emergency under terms of last year’s budget agreement.

That agreement contains a pay-as-you-go provision, which requires non-emergency spending to be offset by spending cuts or revenue increases.

Bush told reporters that he preferred a pay-as-you-go $3.2-billion bill sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) that was defeated on a voice vote in the Senate Thursday night.

“The last thing we want to do is break the budget agreement and . . . increase the deficit,” Bush said. “I do not want to see higher interest rates that would have a devastating effect on this economy, and that’s what would result if we go and pass a lot of legislation that busts the budget agreement.”

Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) said later that the bill approved Friday complied with the emergency requirements of last year’s budget accord.

He noted also that the Administration did not worry about raising the deficit when it requested billions in emergency aid for foreign governments in connection with the Persian Gulf War.

Republicans in the House voted almost 3 to 1 for the bill after Bush met with them at the Capitol to discuss his summit trip to Moscow and indicated that he might not approve payment of the extra benefits, even if he signs the legislation.

“If the President vetoes this bill or fails to trigger the benefits, he’ll fire the opening shot of the 1992 campaign at the heart of American working people, and we intend to see that he pays a heavy price for it,” said Rep. Thomas J. Downey (D-N. Y.), a leading advocate of the bill.

Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) said that, if the President blocks the payment of extended benefits, Congress will pass another bill to accomplish the same objective when it returns in early September.

Rep. Dick Armey (R-Tex.) shot back that passage of the bill marked the start of the presidential election campaign in Congress, adding: “The Democrats’ position on unemployment benefits has little to do with the latest employment data and everything to do with the latest polling data.”

House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) countered that the Bush Administration had put up a wall of resistance to legislation that would aid workers who exhausted jobless benefits during what he termed the “Republican recession.”

Many Democrats argued that Bush had asked for “emergency” aid amounting to billions of dollars for Israel, Kurdish refugees, Turkey, Egypt and Poland. Now, they declared, he was threatening to deny similar help for hard-pressed Americans who cannot find jobs.

However, a few Democrats acknowledged that they should have moved sooner with a permanent program to improve the federal-state unemployment insurance system, including a method of paying for additional benefits.

“We lack the fiscal responsibility and political courage to pay for this bill now,” Rep. Don J. Pease (D-Ohio) complained. But few lawmakers wanted to oppose the additional payments for the long-term unemployed.

“There’s no way any of us want to go home and say we didn’t extend the benefits,” Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr. (R-Fla.) acknowledged.

As a result, 256 Democrats, 118 Republicans and 1 independent voted for the bill; 44 Republicans and only one Democrat--Rep. Timothy J. Penny of Minnesota--voted against it.

Under the bill’s formula, states with unemployment averaging 8% or more in the most recent six-month period would qualify for 20 extra weeks of benefits. States--including California--in the 7% to 8% jobless bracket would be entitled to 13 weeks, and states with rates between 6% and 7% would get seven extra weeks.

States with jobless rates below 6% would pay four weeks of additional compensation to workers who have exhausted their regular benefits.

In addition, those whose unemployment compensation expired before the bill becomes law but after last April 1 would be entitled to extended benefits based on their state of residence. The bill would also reduce the waiting period and extend the duration of jobless pay for members of the armed forces who are forced to leave the service. They would be entitled to 26 weeks of benefits after a one-week delay, rather than 13 weeks and a four-week waiting period.

Vote on Extended Jobless Benefits

Here is how members of the California delegation voted Friday on a measure to extend unemployment benefits for people who have exhausted their basic benefits:

Democrats for--Anderson, Beilenson, Berman, Boxer, Brown, Condit, Dellums, Dixon, Dooley, Dymally, Edwards, Fazio, Lantos, Levine, Miller, Mineta, Panetta, Pelosi, Roybal, Stark, Torres, Waters, Waxman.

Republicans for--Cunningham, Doolittle, Gallegly, Herger, Lagomarsino, Lowery, Riggs, Thomas.

Democrats against--None.

Republicans against--Campbell, Cox, Dannemeyer, Dornan, Dreier, Hunter, Lewis, McCandless, Moorhead, Packard, Rohrabacher.

Democrats not voting--Lehman, Martinez, Matsui.