House votes to extend unemployment benefits: Good, but not enough

As America's unemployment rate edges closer to 10 percent and the phrase "jobless recovery" becomes part of everyday conversation, the House of Representatives voted late Tuesday to extend unemployment benefits for thirteen more weeks in the 29 states where the unemployment rate is over 8.5 percent. The extension, which will cost $1.4 billion, will help one million workers.

Unemployment benefits typically last for 26 weeks, but the new measure, combined with previous extensions, offers workers up to 79 weeks of federally-funded support. To pay for the extension, legislators have proposed delaying a reduction in employer-funded unemployment insurance.