May 23, 2003 By Leigh Strope Ap Labor Writer 3 min read

WASHINGTON (AP) – House Republican leaders say they will extend federal unemployment benefits Thursday, blunting Democratic accusations that the GOP-controlled Congress favors tax cuts for the rich over aid for jobless Americans. The federal program, providing 13 weeks of emergency benefits to people who exhaust their state aid, won’t pay out benefits to new applicants after May 31 unless Congress acts. Congress adjourns Friday for a holiday recess.

The legislative pace quickened Thursday as the Labor Department reported that new applications for state unemployment insurance last week rose to the highest level in two weeks. That surprised economists. New claims from laid-off workers have remained above the 400,000 mark associated with a sluggish job market for 14 straight weeks.

Democrats, eyeing next year’s presidential election, are determined to make the poor economy a politically damaging issue for Bush and the Republicans.

The nation’s unemployment rate last month jumped to 6 percent, matching an eight-year high. The number of jobless workers surged to 8.8 million.

But the House agreement, and a promise by Senate Republicans to act by Friday, helped blunt those attacks.

“We made unemployment simply too hot for Republicans to handle,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California said Thursday.

Pelosi criticized Republicans, who have been negotiating an economic stimulus package, saying money in the pockets of jobless Americans would stimulate the economy more than tax cuts that mostly help the rich.

“The job loss continues,” she said. “And the disdain for jobless Americans continues on Capitol Hill.”

With the House poised to act first, the Senate – in the interest of getting a bill quickly to President Bush – would vote on that proposal, aides said. When that would occur hasn’t been decided.

The GOP House plan, estimated to cost $7.3 billion, would continue through Dec. 31 the current federal program that provides 13 weeks of benefits to jobless workers who exhaust their state benefits, generally 26 weeks.

Six states with high unemployment would get 26 weeks: Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

But left out are an estimated 1.1 million workers who have used up all their state and federal benefits, and are still without jobs, according to the Center for Policy and Budget Priorities, a liberal think tank.

“We have advocated from the very beginning an extension of unemployment benefits not only for those who are experiencing the loss of those benefits right now, but also for the long-term unemployed who are suffering and who simply don’t have recourse if we don’t extend these benefits,” said Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.

Without action by Congress, about 80,000 people each week who exhaust all their state benefits after May 31 would not get federal emergency benefits.