A Second, Broader Jobless Pay Extension Sails Through House

The House Wednesday overwhelmingly passed a Senate-approved bill to provide workers in 23 states with a more generous extension of unemployment benefits than the legislation President Bush signed last week.

The measure, adopted on a 407-21 roll call, was expected to go to a Senate-House conference committee for resolution of differences on unrelated trade provisions before its final approval in Congress. The President is expected to sign the bill, which would supersede an earlier version that was rushed to a vote and quickly signed by Bush so that checks could be mailed by Thanksgiving.

Under the new bill, jobless workers in nine states with the highest unemployment rates would be entitled to an additional 20 weeks of payments; those in the other states would be eligible for an extra 13 weeks of compensation.

The new bill also would provide another 13 weeks of benefits retroactively for workers in 18 states who exhausted their benefits after March 1 but before the new legislation was enacted.

The earlier extension measure provided for fewer additional weeks to fewer states and no retroactive payments in 18 states.

The additional $380-million cost of the second bill would be financed out of surplus savings from revenues raised by the first measure and by moving up the expiration date of the legislation to June 13, instead of July 4.

Several Democratic lawmakers said that the Bush Administration insisted on a benefits formula in the first bill that short-changed many states. Even though it passed the House, 396 to 30, dozens of senators balked at the allocation. The second bill was designed to satisfy those complaints.

With few exceptions, House members embraced the revised formula. Rep. Bill Archer (R-Tex.), however, complained that the second bill was a product of “political panic” and would extend benefits in states where “jobs are available on every corner.”

Rep. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) said that is not the case in his state, where, he said, men are on the streets with signs offering work in exchange for food.