Senate Passes Jobless Aid Bill, Defying Veto Threat : Legislation: The $5.8-billion Democratic measure would extend benefits for up to 20 weeks. Less generous GOP plan is rejected.

The Senate, defying President Bush on an issue expected to reverberate in next year’s elections, approved by a 69-30 vote Tuesday a $5.8-billion measure that would extend jobless benefits for up to 20 weeks.

Thirteen Republicans joined 56 Democrats to pass the Senate bill by more than the two-thirds majority required to override an expected presidential veto.

Only Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), a certain supporter of the legislation, was absent. Both Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) and John Seymour (R-Calif.) voted for it.

The House adopted a similar $6.3-billion bill last week by a 283-125 vote, more than a two-thirds majority of those voting.

The Senate legislation, pushed hard by Democratic leaders, now goes to a Senate-House conference committee to reconcile differences with the House measure. A final version must be approved by both houses before it is sent to the President’s desk for his consideration.

Although Democrats were pleased by the Senate’s lopsided vote, GOP leaders said the outcome might be different when lawmakers confront the issue of whether to sustain or override a veto.

“I believe the veto will be sustained,” Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said.

Backers of the legislation want to cushion the impact of long-term unemployment by providing extra payments for an estimated 3.5 million workers who will exhaust their regular unemployment benefits, which are paid for 26 weeks.

President Bush has condemned the Democratic plan as far too costly. He has embraced a less sweeping $3.1-billion GOP bill that would provide up to 10 more weeks of unemployment compensation and raise the revenue to pay for the additional benefits.

However, the Senate rejected the Bush-backed plan, voting 57 to 42 along party lines to kill it before adopting the more expansive measure sponsored by Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Tex.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

Some Republicans charged that the Democrats were more interested in advancing a political issue against the President than in getting more benefits into the hands of the long-term jobless, whose ranks have swelled during the current recession.

In August, Bush signed a similar bill but refused to declare that the issue constituted an emergency, thus blocking funding for the extra compensation.

But the final version of the new bill is expected to force a veto, which could be politically unpopular.

Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) said the prolonged recession justified federal action to help jobless persons make their mortgage and car payments and feed their families.

“The recovery stalls,” Mitchell said. “The economy is in crisis. People are desperate and people are hurting.”

Similarly, Sen. Brock Adams (D-Wash.) declared, “It’s easy for this Administration to ignore the unemployed, but it’s unconscionable for Congress to do so.”

In another partisan clash, the Senate sidetracked a proposal by Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) to lower capital gains taxes, voting 60 to 39 that it violated the Constitution to originate revenue measures in the Senate rather than in the House.

The Senate-approved unemployment bill would provide 20 weeks of additional benefits for workers in six states and Puerto Rico, where unemployment has averaged more than 8% for the six months ending last July. Similarly, California and 12 other states, as well as the nation’s capital, would be eligible for an extra 13 weeks of payments on the basis of a jobless rate averaging 7% or more.