Ten senators, including members of both parties, have reached a deal extending by five months long-term unemployment insurance benefits that have already expired, Breitbart News reported yesterday. More than two million Americans would be affected, and the retroactive payments would be marked from Dec. 28, 2013, to the end of May 2014. Although Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said that the aid would be "paid for," the cost, roughly $10 billion, would be offset partly by "pension smoothing," an accounting trick in which a timing shift is used in calculating the pension interest rate. Both the Heritage Foundation and Center on Budget and Policy Priorities have called it a gimmick. The bill has to pass the Senate and then pass the House, which seems unlikely. All of the Democrats must vote for the bill, along with five Republicans, for it to reach the 60 votes that it needs in the Senate. The deal would end federal unemployment insurance payments to those whose adjusted gross income in 2013 was $1 million or more. It would also fortify reemployment and eligibility assessment and ReEmployment Services programs.
