Core Provisions: These bills would provide full federal funding to state governments to temporarily extend unemployment benefits to qualifying out-of-work individuals. Such workers qualify for benefits when they have exhausted current benefits after filing an initial jobless claim in the past year. Under the bills, unemployment benefits would be extended by an additional 13 weeks to workers who exhausted their benefits, with additional 13-week extensions available in states with higher rates of unemployment.

Status: H.R. 4934 was introduced in the House by Rep. McDermott (D-WA) on January 15, 2008, and referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means. Rep. McDermott introduced H.R. 5749 on April 9, 2008. H.R. 5749 was also referred to the House Ways and Means Committee and was approved by the Committee by a vote of 23-13 on April 16, 2008.  S. 2544 was introduced by Sen. Kennedy (D-MA) on January 22, 2008, and referred to the Finance Committee. A hearing on issues related to the bill was held on March 6, 2008, before the Senate HELP Committee. In order to circumvent “pay-go” rules, the extension of unemployment benefits was attached to the Iraqi war supplemental bill in the House (H.R. 2642) by a vote of 256-166 on May 15, 2008. The Senate Appropriations Committee, by voice vote, approved similar language on May 15. H.R. 5749, a stand-alone bill extending benefits, passed the House by a vote of 274-143 on June 12, 2008 and proceeded to the Senate for evaluation. The Bush Administration has threatened to veto the stand-alone bill.