Jobless Benefits Extension Wins Bush Approval : Economy: The 13-week addition for the long-term unemployed will cost $2.7 billion and take effect immediately upon signing.

Extending an election-year olive branch to Congress, President Bush on Tuesday endorsed a compromise $2.7-billion measure to extend jobless benefits another 13 weeks for the long-term unemployed.

The House Ways and Means Committee swiftly adopted the bill without opposition. In contrast to months-long battles over unemployment benefits last year, the new bill is expected to sail through the House and Senate next week and be sent to the President’s desk for his signature as the first recession-relief measure of 1992.

The bill would take effect immediately and would protect workers whose basic 26 weeks of compensation have expired as well as those who exhaust their rights to the additional 13 to 20 weeks of benefits approved by Congress last November.

The new legislation would expire July 4, a time when many economists believe a recovery will be under way. But a spokesman for the committee said that Congress would be likely to approve another extension this summer if joblessness remains at or near the current 7.1%.

White House backing was assured after House Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.) worked out an agreement with House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel (R-Ill.) to pay for the extra benefits with $2.2 billion in surplus funds and $0.5 billion from a speed-up in future corporate tax payments.

“I fully support that agreement,” Bush said in a friendly “Dear Danny” letter to Rostenkowski. “Thank you for your cooperation in seeking a bipartisan solution to this problem.”

The harmony contrasted sharply with the drawn-out struggle last year over additional jobless benefits. Bush vetoed one bill and blocked payments under another.

Democrats contended that Bush showed insensitivity to millions of jobless Americans during a stubborn recession. Since then, with his popularity waning as he enters a reelection campaign, Bush has acknowledged that he underestimated the severity of the economic downturn.

Bush should be able to sign the latest extension of unemployment compensation as voters in depressed New Hampshire prepare to cast ballots Feb. 18 in the nation’s first presidential primary election.

The bill zipped through the committee on a voice vote. Even Rep. Bill Archer (R-Tex.), who strongly opposed the last extension of benefits, did not object.

Despite the unusual bipartisan accord, some committee members argued that Congress must make permanent changes in the system of unemployment insurance to remedy weaknesses made more obvious by the long downturn.

“The unemployment (compensation) system is a broken system and we are fixing it yet again,” complained Rep. Thomas J. Downey (D-N.Y.), a leading advocate of a major overhaul of jobless benefits.

Rostenkowski agreed, saying: “We’ve got to get some permanency in the unemployment compensation area.”

The new measure was scaled down from Rostenkowski’s proposed $4.5-billion bill, which would have provided extra jobless payments through Oct. 3.

To meet Bush’s request to conform to the 1990 budget agreement between Congress and the White House, which requires that new programs must include funding provisions, the bill would allocate about $2.2 billion from a surplus created by revenue-raising legislation enacted last year.