US President Barack Obama on Thursday signed a law to restore unemployment benefits for people who have been out of work for six months or more. Congress approved the measure earlier in the day. The move ended an interruption that cut off payments averaging about US$300 a week to 2.5 million people who have been unable to find work in the aftermath of the nation’s long and deep recession.
The House of Representatives had approved the measure just hours before the president signed it.
Most Republicans opposed the measure because it would add US$34 billion to a national debt that has hit US$13 trillion. They argued that it should have been paid for with cuts to other programs, such as unspent money from last year’s economic stimulus bill. That law is earning mixed grades at best from voters as unemployment stands at 9.5 percent nationwide.
Considering the continued high unemployment, which includes millions of long-term jobless people, Democrats expect the restoration over Republican opposition to contribute to votes in November. All 435 seats in the House are up for grabs, as well as 36 of the 100 senators.
Thursday’s 272-152 House vote sent the bill to the White House.
“Americans who are fighting to find a good job and support their families will finally get the support they need to get back on their feet during these tough economic times,” Obama said in a statement issued after signing the measure.
The House action came less than 24 hours after a mostly party-line Senate vote on Wednesday on the measure, which is just one piece of a larger Democratic jobs agenda that has otherwise mostly collapsed after months of battles with Republicans.
Republican opposition forced Democrats to drop US$24 billion that would have helped state governments avoid layoffs and higher taxes, as well as a package of expired tax cuts and a health insurance subsidy for the unemployed.
Wrangling over the larger measure consumed about four months. The jobless benefits portion picked up enough minority party support in the Senate — Maine moderates Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe — only after jobless payments were cut out of the overall measure and presented as a stand-alone bill. It would have passed last month except for the death of Democratic Senator Robert Byrd — Byrd’s replacement, Democrat Carte Goodwin, cast the key 60th vote to quash an extended Republican delay.
Obama also signed legislation that is intended to slash by US$50 billion the government money improperly paid to dead people, fugitives and those in jail who should not be getting benefits.
That goal, if achieved, would not even halve the US$110 billion made in such payments last year.
The new law will strengthen efforts by federal agencies to halt the flow of improper money in a series of ways. Among those steps — requiring more audits of programs and adding penalties for agencies that do not comply with the law. The legislation also broadens how recovered money can be used.
Obama chose to sign the bill before cameras in the White House’s State Dining Room in hopes of bringing attention to the new law. He announced a goal of reducing improper payments by US$50 billion by 2012.
The president said the ultimate goal is to end all improper payments.
“We have to challenge a status quo that accepts billions of dollars in waste as the cost of doing business,” the president said.
Bad payments range from outright fraud to checks issued to the wrong people or for the wrong amount because of typographical errors. The president said every dollar wasted should be going toward helping people afford college, providing benefits to the military and many other legitimate uses of tax money.
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