Bush Urges Congress to Extend Benefits to the Nation’s Jobless

President Bush jumped into the debate over unemployment benefits Saturday, calling upon Congress to take immediate action next month to extend unemployment payments for more than 750,000 Americans who will no longer receive their checks as of Dec. 28.

Democrats had been blasting the Bush administration for remaining silent as efforts to extend the benefits deadlocked and Congress adjourned without taking action.

“When our legislators return to the capital, I ask them to make the extension of unemployment benefits a first order of business,” Bush said in his weekly radio address.

The president urged Congress to make the extension retroactive so recipients whose benefits expire Dec. 28 would be paid in full. He also said he would direct the Labor Department to work with state unemployment programs to minimize any delays in payments.

“These Americans rely on their unemployment benefits to pay for the mortgage or rent, food and other critical bills,” Bush said. “They need our assistance in these difficult times, and we cannot let them down.”

The president’s comments come as the nation’s unemployment rate rose to 6% last month and the administration is attempting to show that it is actively engaged in getting the U.S. economy back on track. Within the last month, Bush cleared out his old economic team, including Treasury Secretary Paul H. O’Neill, and has picked a new slate of advisors.

But critics called the president’s push on unemployment benefits too little, too late.

“He’s very late in expressing an opinion,” said Maurice Emsellem, public policy director of the National Employment Law Project in Oakland.

Emsellem said Bush’s remarks did not address the more serious issues of what to do about the estimated 1 million people whose unemployment benefits have run out, though they still cannot find work. Beginning in January, about 90,000 more people each week will see their benefits run out, he said.

“What’s going to happen to those people?” Emsellem asked.

Bush and Congress are focusing instead on the more than 750,000 people in the country who are receiving extended unemployment benefits under a temporary stimulus program passed in March. That program provided 13 more weeks of benefits on top of the standard 26 weeks, but it expires this month. Unless the law is changed, recipients who began collecting checks Oct. 6 or later will not receive the full 13 weeks of pay.

In the Senate, Democrats and Republicans joined to pass a bill to extend the program through at least March. But House Republicans, led by Rep. Bill Thomas (R-Bakersfield), considered the Senate version too costly and instead pushed for only a five-week extension.

“The Senate version would cost five times as much,” said Christin Tinsworth, a spokeswoman for the House Ways and Means Committee. “We will have to consider this question again when we get back next month.”

In his remarks Saturday, Bush gave no indication which proposal he favored.

Democrats have been capitalizing on the issue, saying that the expiration of benefits three days after Christmas flies in the face of the president’s call for “compassionate conservatism.”

In the Democrats’ response to Bush’s address, Rep. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the new House Democratic Caucus chairman, said the party is preparing its own economic plan.