Extension of Jobless Benefits – Wisconsin

State Senate votes to extend jobless benefits, By Patrick Marley and Jason Stein, July 19, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “The Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to capture an estimated $88 million in federal money to extend jobless benefits to tens of thousands of out-of-work state residents. In a surprising reversal, most GOP senators joined Democrats in voting to drop a one-week waiting period to get jobless benefits that they adopted just a month ago – a change that put the bill’s future in the Republican Assembly in doubt. The flip-flop came as recall elections loomed for six Republican and three Democratic senators, including one election being held Tuesday. Extending the benefits an additional 13 weeks with federal money would not touch the state’s struggling unemployment insurance trust fund. But ending the waiting period would add $41 million to $56 million a year in additional costs for the fund. There was no immediate word on whether Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald (R-Horicon) and Gov. Scott Walker supported the revised bill…”