States get set to resume unemployment benefits
USA Today – WASHINGTON — State unemployment agencies are gearing up to resume sending unemployment payments to millions of people as Congress moves to ship President Obama a measure to restore lapsed benefits.
After months of increasingly bitter stalemate, the Senate passed the measure Wednesday by a 59-39 vote. Obama is poised to sign the measure into law after a final House vote scheduled for today.
It's a welcome relief to 2½ million people who have been out of work for six months or more and have seen their benefits lapse.
Under best-case scenarios, unemployed people who have been denied jobless benefits because of a partisan Senate standoff over renewing them can expect retroactive payments as early as next week in some states.
