WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has signed a bill extending unemployment benefits through June 2 and restoring full Medicare payments to doctors.
People who lost out on the additional weeks of benefits after exhausting their state- paid benefits will be able to reapply and receive those checks retroactively.
The bill also resumes full Medicare payments to doctors threatened by a 21 percent cut.
The House cleared the bill Thursday night by a 289-112 tally taken just two hours after it emerged from the Senate on a 59-38 vote that capped an unusually partisan debate. Republicans largely chose to take a stand against the legislation for adding to the $12.8 trillion national deficit despite backing it by wide margins in December and again recently.
“It increases the deficit by $18 billion, a cost to be paid for by future generations,” said Rep. Jerry Moran, R- Kan. “This legislation is yet another unfortunate example of business as usual in our nation’s capital.”
But the vote comes as welcome relief to hundreds of thousands of people who lost out on the additional weeks of benefits after exhausting their state-paid benefits.
Obama thanked Congress for passing the temporary jobless-benefits extension, saying it was critical to help struggling families make ends meet.
