WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- President Bush on Thursday proposed extending by 13 weeks unemployment compensation for the nation's displaced employees in the states hardest hit by job losses in the wake of terrorist attacks in New York and Washington and provided $3 billion in health coverage assistance and income supplements.
"There is no question that not only should our government act to encourage economic growth, our government ought to act whose lives were affected on Sept. 11," Bush said. "In our post-attack economy some workers need more help for more time."
In a speech at the Labor Department President Bush said the Sept. 11 attacks that leveled the World Trade Center twin towers in New York and damaged the Pentagon sent a "shockwave" through the economy and the nation and that it was the government's responsibility to provide assistance.
The emergency aid package provides 13 addition weeks of jobless benefits for people who became unemployed after Sept. 11 and in states where the state's total unemployment rate increases by 30 percent over pre-attack levels. The program, paid for with federal dollars, remains in effect for 18 months.
The package provides $3 billion in national emergency grants for states experiencing plant closing and mass layoffs. The grants would be used for job training, re-employment services, child care and transportation for people making the transition back to work. It would also be used to help workers who have medical plans maintain their health insurance benefits.
And the aid package would also provide $11 billion to the states for health insurance for low-income workers, such as those who were part-time, seasonal or temporary. That would include expansion of coverage of children under the State Children's Health Insurance Program, in addition to the $3.1 billion in SCHIP appropriations for fiscal year 2002. Bush said tax cuts and child tax credits would also remain in effect in 2002.
Labor unions had criticized the Bush administration for considering a lucrative airline bailout plan without including the more than 200,000 aviation and related industry workers that had been laid off or fired after the attacks.
The unemployment rate at the end of August was 4.9 percent, the highest in four years. In the week ending Sept. 22, the number of unemployment insurance claims rose by 58,000 to 450,000, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. As of the end of last week, that number jumped to 528,000 unemployment claims.
New employment figures are expected to be released Friday.
Bush's announcement came as the White House and Congress negotiated a stimulus package that would shore up the sagging economy, particularly in the aviation and related industries.
Bush said Wednesday that Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill has recommended to Congress an economic stimulus package of between $60 billion and $75 billion. That figure is $10 billion higher than estimates by Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., who also on Wednesday, said Congress has been discussing a package in the "$50 billion range."
Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., emerged from the White House early Thursday afternoon and said he acknowledged that it might not be possible to come up with a stimulus package that does not place the country in debt.
"But these are unusual times that require unusual actions. We should be careful how we act. We should not loose the dogs of deficit spending," Lott said. "We may decide we may not want to go that size. I think we're still talking parameters."
