Obama extends economic aid

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By Joseph Weber

President Obama signed into law Friday a $24 billion economic-stimulus package to provide additional unemployment and tax benefits to Americans still struggling through the country's worst recession since Word War II.

The Worker, Homeownership and Business Assistance Act of 2009 will provide laid-off workers with up to 20 additional weeks of federal unemployment benefits, cut taxes for business owners and extend the $8,000 Homebuyer Tax Credit.

"We want to give even more families an opportunity to own a home," said Mr. Obama in a Rose Garden ceremony.

He made the announcement several hours after the Labor Department reported the October unemployment rate climbed to 10.2 percent, from 9.8 percent in September.

Mr. Obama called the expected increase "a sober number that underscores the economic challenges that lie ahead."

The act builds on the administration's $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed into law in February to help create more jobs.

The legislation was passed Thursday by the House with bipartisan support and passed unanimously Wednesday in the Senate.

This is the fourth unemployment benefit extension in the past 18 months.

The law gives an additional 14 weeks of benefits to people who have exhausted their unemployment benefits or will by the end of the year. Those in states where the jobless rate is 8.5 percent or above get an additional six weeks.

The home-buyer credit is a one-time extension until April 2010.

The president said this extention will help an additional 700,000 unemployed Americans. He also said the extension, combined with previous ones, will help more than one million Americans and not increase the deficit.