Bush to OK Jobless Aid Extension but Withhold Funds

President Bush will sign a $5.2-billion measure granting additional benefits to the long-term unemployed, but he will keep the money from reaching them by refusing to sign an emergency declaration required because of the legislation’s impact on the federal budget deficit, White House officials said Thursday.

By making the bill law, the President seeks to avoid a head-to-head veto fight with Congress over extending unemployment benefits.

“The plan is to sign it but not declare the emergency,” one White House official said. “With the recession over and the economy coming into recovery, it’s not a good bill; it would violate the budget agreement and it would appropriate (money) we don’t have.”

The issue of unemployed workers whose benefits have run out poses a host of problems for Bush, who is expected to act today or Saturday at his vacation home, where he is spending a four-week holiday. His opposition to spending the money is expected to draw a demonstration of union workers to this seaside community this afternoon.

The President opposes the additional aid, officials have said, because it would throw out of kilter the agreement hammered out last autumn to begin trimming the federal budget. Under that pact, reached by the Administration and Congress, Bush must sign a declaration of emergency if spending for federal programs would go above the limits to which the budget negotiators agreed.

By signing the legislation, Bush lines himself up with those seeking to protect the unemployed from the lagging effects of the economic recession. But, by refusing to sign the declaration of emergency, the President withholds the money, protecting the budget agreement.

The measure would provide from four to 20 weeks of additional unemployment benefits, depending on a state’s average unemployment rate over six months. It would provide an additional 13 weeks of coverage for jobless workers in California.

The latest national unemployment report showed a slight drop in July. But it was said to reflect the number of people dropping out of the labor market, after being unemployed for long periods and giving up their search for work, rather than an improved employment picture.

According to the July figures, the jobless rate was 6.8%, a decrease from the 7% rate in June, which was the highest rate in five years. In California, the July rate was 7.6%, down from the 8.2% rate in June.

The legislation was passed by a voice vote in the Senate on Aug. 1 and by an overwhelming vote of 375 to 45 in the House a day later--a margin that reflected widespread support among both Republicans and Democrats.

When the measure was passed by the House, Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri declared in remarks to his colleagues, although he was, in effect, addressing the President:

“Sign the bill, declare the emergency, use your enormous power to help the people who elected you.”

But Bush made his thinking clear about the same moment, when he said at a news conference: “The last thing we want to do is break the budget agreement and . . . increase the deficit.”

The debate over the legislation and the necessary declaration of emergency reflects the intrusion of domestic issues into the Bush presidency and the role that Democrats hope they will play in the 1992 presidential campaign.

With Bush readily acknowledging that national security issues and foreign policy in general hold more interest for him, Democrats are seeking ways to capitalize on what they maintain is an undercurrent of dissatisfaction with his handling of the economy and other domestic matters.

Bush aides said that they recognize the potential for political hot water that the unemployment issue offers.

One White House aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the White House expects the Democrats to “use this as a political tool to go home and have something to criticize (the President) for in their Labor Day speeches. That’s playing politics.”

But another White House official said that, by signing the measure, Bush would show that he supports the concept of additional help for the jobless, demonstrating “concern” and letting them know “you do want people to find jobs,” without going “that extra step” that would actually start the additional funds flowing. The official said that Bush wanted to avoid vetoing the legislation.

Also on Thursday, the White House said that Bush signed a measure authorizing spending for U.S. intelligence activities that puts into law for the first time new procedures for congressional oversight of covert activities. He signed also legislation giving members of the Senate a $23,200-a-year pay increase, bringing Senate salaries to the same level as those paid to members of the House of Representatives--$125,100.