ANDREW TAYLOR
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON – After buying time by resolving an impasse over jobless benefits and other programs that had briefly lapsed, the Senate is returning to a $100 billion-plus bill reviving popular tax breaks and extending longer and more generous jobless benefits through the end of the year.
Tuesday night’s vote to approve stopgap legislation extending a host of programs, including highway funding, generous health insurance subsidies for the unemployed and benefits for the long-term jobless, gives Congress time to consider the far larger measure covering most of the same programs.
But the daunting price tag on the longer-term measure guarantees more complications and a rougher path through the Senate than experienced by the bill passed Tuesday.