Senate approves jobless-aid bill

WASHINGTON - State agencies are gearing up to resume sending unemployment payments to millions of people as Congress moves to ship President Obama a measure to restore lapsed benefits.

After months of increasingly bitter deadlock, the Senate passed the measure Wednesday, 59-39.

Obama is poised to sign it into law after a final House vote Thursday.

It is welcome news to 2.5 million people who have been out of work for six months or more or have seen benefits lapse.

Under best-case scenarios, unemployed people who have been denied jobless benefits because of a partisan Senate standoff over renewing them can expect retroactive payments as early as next week in some states. In other states, it will take longer.

State unemployment and labor agencies have been preparing for weeks for Congress to restore jobless payments averaging $309 a week for almost 5 million people whose 26 weeks of state benefits have run out. Those people are enrolled in a federally financed program providing up to 73 additional weeks of unemployment benefits.

In Pennsylvania and New York, the back payments should go out next week, officials said. In other states, such as Nevada, it may take a few weeks for all of those eligible to receive benefits, said Mae Worthey, a spokeswoman for the Department of Employment, Training, and Rehabilitation.