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The Associated PressWASHINGTON — With no end in sight to economic bad news, President George W. Bush today ensured that millions of laid-off workers will keep getting their unemployment checks as the year-end holidays approach.
Bush signed an extension of jobless benefits into law as he was preparing to leave the White House for a morning flight to Lima, Peru, to attend the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
Congressional leadership rushed the bill to the White House after it was approved Thursday to make the unusually quick bill signing possible before Bush left the country.
Earlier in the year, Bush expressed doubts about further benefit extensions, but he came to support the legislation as new figures showed new claims for jobless aid had reached a 16-year high.
Congress, jarred by new job-loss alarms, had raced to approve legislation Thursday.
The Senate voted on the bill after Thursday's government report that new claims for jobless benefits had reached a 16-year high, and the number of Americans searching for work had surged past 10 million.
Meanwhile, the economic picture was only getting worse, if Wall Street was any indication. The Dow Jones industrials dropped more than 400 points for a second straight day, reaching the lowest level in more than five years, and the Standard & Poor's 500 index fell below lows established six years ago.
As for the jobless benefits, about 1.2 million people would exhaust their unemployment insurance by the end of the year without the extension, sponsors said. The measure is estimated to cost about $5.7 billion, although economists put the positive impact at $1.64 for every dollar spent on jobless benefits because the money helps sustain other jobs and supports consumer confidence.
"Putting money in the hands of unemployed families means they will be able to pay their rent and utility bills, buy groceries and clothe their children," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said after the voice vote in the Senate. "It is money that will create economic growth in America."
The House had approved the bill in October.
More than 1.2 million jobs have been lost so far this year, and the civilian jobless rate is at a 14-year high of 6.5 percent.
Thursday's Labor Department report said new claims for unemployment benefits jumped last week to 542,000, the highest level since July 1992 and fresh evidence of a rapidly weakening job market that is expected to get even worse next year.
The legislation as approved would provide seven additional weeks of payments to people who have exhausted their benefits or will exhaust them soon. Those in states where the unemployment rate is above 6 percent would be entitled to an additional 13 weeks above the 26 weeks of regular benefits. Benefit checks average about $300 a week nationwide.
The benefits provided would be in addition to 13 weeks of federally funded extended benefits approved by Congress last June.
The vote could wrap up this session of Congress – with the possibility of the December return to vote on aid to the auto industry.
The broader economic questions of what further actions Washington must take to avoid more home foreclosures and stabilize staggering financial markets will probably have to wait until January, when the new Democratic-dominated Congress will convene and Barack Obama will be in the White House. An economy-stimulating package that could run into the hundreds of billions of dollars is likely to be on the agenda when the next Congress opens.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Thursday that the financial crisis now plaguing the world economy is something that happens "once or twice" in 100 years.
The need to address the deteriorating job situation was one area on which everyone could agree.
Congress has enacted federally funded extensions seven times...
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