Congress Acts Swiftly on Jobless Benefits : Legislation: Ways and Means Committee OKs an aid extension. The full House and Senate are likely to vote today. The bill has Bush’s blessing.

Congress, with the backing of President Bush, raced Wednesday to complete action on a $5.1-billion bill to extend long-term jobless benefits for 3 million workers by up to 20 weeks.

Acting in less than 20 minutes, the House Ways and Means Committee voted 29 to 7 for the anti-recession measure. House and Senate approval is expected today before the legislation is sent to the President for his signature.

While congressional leaders voiced hope that additional benefits, averaging $167 a week, would be in the hands of the unemployed by Thanksgiving, the Department of Labor said it would take three weeks to process the checks.

The swift action contrasted with the four months of partisan standoff between the President and the Democratic-controlled Congress over whether the extra benefits were needed and how they should be financed.

In the end, a compromise agreement reflected Bush’s demand that the legislation must pay for itself by raising another $5.1 billion in revenues over the next five years. Congressional Democrats, however, retained the essential benefits package that were in two previous bills that the President blocked in August and October.

Under the bill speeding through Congress, workers who have exhausted their regular 26 weeks of benefits without finding a job would be entitled to extra payments lasting six, 13 or 20 weeks depending on the level of unemployment in their states.

Nine states and Puerto Rico, hit hardest by the recession, would be eligible for 20 weeks. Nineteen states, including California as well as the District of Columbia, would receive an extra 13 weeks of benefits and 24 others, including the Virgin Islands, would qualify for six more weeks of unemployment compensation.

In addition, workers in 32 states, including California, would be entitled to more benefits if they exhausted their regular payments at any time since last March 1. The program is scheduled to expire July 4.

Bush, on a campaign swing in the Midwest, telephoned his endorsement of the bill to a group of Republicans gathered in the office of Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.).

“The deal you have been able to hammer out is a good one and one I can enthusiastically support,” the President told House Minority Leader Bob Michel (R-Ill.), the chief GOP negotiator of the compromise.

Bush, who refused to declare a budget emergency to authorize benefits last summer as Democrats originally wanted him to do, said the compromise would not break the 1990 budget agreement since it will pay for itself.

“We’re able to help people who are really hurting without burdening other taxpayers,” the President said. “Well done!”

Faced with gloomy economic reports, Bush gave Michel a green light two weeks ago to see if he could work out an agreement with Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.), chairman of the House Ways and Means panel.

After several false starts, they reached an agreement in principle Tuesday night on a scaled-down package that got the Administration’s blessing. Final agreement on technical and language differences was obtained late Wednesday afternoon.

The revenue-raising package caused the most difficulty. Under the compromise, about $2.6 billion would be raised by a speed-up in estimated tax payments by individuals with income of $75,000 a year or more whose income rises by more than $40,000 in a year.

With some exceptions, these taxpayers would be required to make quarterly tax payments equal to at least 90% of their tax liability for the current year, rather than paying 100% of the tax liability for the previous year.

Other provisions would make permanent the existing government program that allows the Internal Revenue Service to deduct federal debts from income tax refunds and allow the government to garnishee the wages of persons who are delinquent on repayment of student loans.

Another provision would continue the existing 0.8% tax rate on employers for jobless insurance for another year after 1996.

The compromise also retained a provision that would treat ex-servicemen in the same way as civilian workers rather than forcing them to wait for four weeks before receiving unemployment benefits and limiting their duration to 13 weeks as present law requires. This would be a permanent change.