BUSH SIGNS JOBLESS-BENEFITS EXTENSION

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 8, 1992                   TAG: 9202080259
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short
BUSH SIGNS JOBLESS-BENEFITS EXTENSION
President Bush signed legislation late Friday to extend unemployment benefits by 13 weeks, a measure Congress rushed to him earlier in the week to help 2 million jobless Americans, including 600,000 whose benefits otherwise would end this month.
Bush lent an air of urgency to the extension by signing it while aboard Air Force One on his return from California.
Asked about fact that he had twice killed unemployment benefits bills after Congress passed them last year, he replied: "I said I want to do it, but I want to do it within the budget agreement." The legislation he signed Friday meets that condition, he said.
Congress overwhelmingly approved the $2.7 billion election-year measure on Wednesday. But the White House did not receive the legislation until Thursday, when the president already had left on a quick cross-country trip to promote his new health-care package.
The bill would add another 13 weeks to the benefits jobless people can receive. They now can get either 39 or 46 weeks of coverage, depending on how high unemployment is in their states.
Without the extension, coverage would run out just as the presidential primary campaign heats up.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB