Jobless-Aid Bill Clears House, Snags in Senate : Legislation: The measure passes on 396-30 vote. Several lawmakers say their states would be shortchanged under the allocation formula.

A compromise bill to finance unemployment benefits for people who have been out of work more than six months easily cleared the House Thursday but hit a snag in the Senate, delaying expected final passage until today.

With claims for jobless benefits hitting a six-month high, the House gave overwhelming approval to legislation backed by President Bush that would extend $5.1 billion to 3 million idled workers whose regular benefits have expired.

But while the bill breezed through the House on a 396-30 vote, it encountered stiff head winds in the Senate, where several lawmakers protested that their states would be shortchanged under the allocation formula.

Insisting on a fairer formula, senators from Delaware, North Dakota, Louisiana and New Hampshire blocked a move to have the Senate quickly ratify the House-passed measure and send it to the President.

In those states and 14 others, workers whose benefits have been exhausted since March 1 would not be eligible for the additional, retroactive payments that workers in 32 states would receive under the proposed legislation.

Eligible Californians, including those who ran out of benefits since last March, would be entitled to 13 additional weeks of benefits.

After several hours of wrangling, Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) won agreement to begin action on the bill this morning, with four senators permitted to offer amendments designed to give workers in their states more money.

But Mitchell warned that adoption of any of the amendments might sink the bill, and Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) cautioned that failure to pass the measure intact by noon might delay the mailing of initial benefit checks past Thanksgiving.

Passage of the compromise would end a four-month stalemate between Capitol Hill and the White House. Benefit amounts vary from state to state, but the average national payment would be $167 a week.

While partisan warfare was muted in the House debate, several Democrats assailed the President for killing two previous efforts to extend the benefits while Republicans accused Democratic leaders of playing politics with the issue.

Congress acted as the Labor Department reported that new claims for unemployment insurance--a barometer of recent layoffs--rose to a six-month peak of 454,000 in the week ending Nov. 2.

The department said that about 3.3 million of the nation’s 8.6 million jobless workers were receiving benefits last week. About 300,000 persons a month are now exhausting their payments.

The House bill passed with support from 260 Democrats, 135 Republicans and one independent, while only four Democrats and 26 GOP lawmakers opposed it.

All California Democrats in the House voted for the bill. All but four California Republicans also voted for it. Voting against it were Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton), Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Rockland) and Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley). Rep. Tom Campbell (R-Palo Alto) did not vote.

At the President’s insistence, the bill would be paid for by a speed-up in estimated tax payments by high-income Americans, improved debt collection on delinquent student loans and a one-year extension of the 0.8% tax that employers now pay for jobless insurance.