Obama to sign homebuyer, jobless bill

The credit, said Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley of Nevada, a state particularly hard hit by the recession, “will allow more people to purchase a home in my district and help stop the continued downward spiral in housing prices caused by the foreclosure crisis.”

Prolonging the life of the homebuyer credit has been a priority of the real estate industry, which says it has been instrumental in beginning to turn around a market that was a major cause of the economic downturn. About 1.4 million first-time homebuyers have qualified for the credit through August, and the National Association of Realtors estimates that 350,000 of them would not have purchased their homes without the credit.

The other tax credit allows businesses that have lost money in 2008 or 2009 to get refunds on taxes paid on profits during the five previous years.

The Senate spent more than a month crafting the package and working out partisan fights over amendments, angering lawmakers and others who pointed out that 7,000 people lose their unemployment benefits every day. The National Employment Law Project estimated that 600,000 workers exhausted their benefits in September and October while Congress debated the legislation.

The lead sponsor of the bill in the House, Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott, reminded lawmakers that they'll have to revisit the issue again before adjourning for the year. The bill applies to benefits exhausted this year, and “Congress must act again before the end of this year to continue the extended unemployment benefits that we are now improving.”

The more than US$21 billion cost of the tax credits would be paid for largely by delaying a tax break for multinational companies that pay foreign taxes.

The cost of the unemployment benefit extension, about US$2.4 billion, is offset by extending a federal unemployment tax that employers must pay.

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