Senate Committee Approves Extension Of Jobless Benefits
WASHINGTON -- The Senate Finance Committee approved legislation to extend until next March emergency unemployment benefits that otherwise shut down July 4.</br></br>Workers who have exhausted normal state unemployment benefits would be eligible for either 26 or 33 weeks of additional emergency benefits under the plan, depending upon the unemployment rate in their state. The number of weeks could be reduced, however, if the national unemployment rate, currently 7.5%, drops below 7% for two consecutive months.</br></br>The finance panel's plan is far closer to administration proposals than the version passed Tuesday by House Democrats. The House bill would offer up to 26 weeks of emergency jobless benefits. Both jobless packages, however, face administrative opposition.</br></br>The $5.4 billion cost of the legislation approved yesterday would be covered by eight tax-raising measures. One provision would require securities dealers to pay taxes on the year-end market value of their portfolios, rather than on the value at purchase. Another provision would bar new owners of failed thrifts from deducting losses for which the federal government has compensated them since March 4, 1991, a practice known as double-dipping.</br></br>Both of these tax provisions were part of President Bush's budget proposal this year. Another measure would require large corporations to pay their quarterly taxes based on 96% of their estimated yearly income, up from 95%.