In just three days, President Obama will convene his latest White House summit.  Beer won't be served at this particular function, however. Instead, lawmakers, business leaders, union officials, and economists will join administration officials to discuss how to spur job growth and protect the long-term unemployed.

Politics will prevent Obama from passing another stimulus package along the lines of the one he sheparded through Congress last winter. But lawmakers are eying a host of potential targeted proposals -- business tax credits for new hires, state fiscal aid, extended unemployment and COBRA benefits, a $600 billion transportation reauthorization bill, and a "work share" program, among others -- they could bundle together. According to the New York Times, Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Illinois' own Dick Durbin could finish writing the initial bill this month "with an eye to debate early next year."

That time-line won't help the estimated 600,000 workers nationwide who are scheduled to lose eligibility for the next tier of federal unemployment benefits or the 450,000 workers who will exhaust their 26 weeks of state benefits sometime in January. Nor will it force Congress to fix the deadline glitch written into the federal unemployment benefit extension that was passed earlier this month. You may recall that the bill signed by Obama granted an additional 14 weeks of unemployment aid to jobless workers and another six weeks to those who will have exhausted their benefits by the end of 2009 and live in a state with an unemployment rate at or above 8.5 percent. But H.R. 3548 requires workers to exhaust the first 14 weeks before applying for the next six.  Because Congress approved the measure just seven weeks before the end of the year deadline, no one will be eligible to collect the latter allotment.

Now aware of the flawed language, some senators have begun brainstorming. Today, the Bangor Daily News quotes Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) suggesting that there is "broad support" to alter the bill's wording. Finding time on the Senate schedule to take the appropriate votes is trickier. It may be embarrassing for members of the the upper chamber to revise a bill they approved just weeks ago, but urgency is required. Hopefully, this quick-fix will be a topic of discussion at Thursday's summit.

Also, we're curious whether unemployed workers here in Illinois have successfully been certified for the extension. (That process was supposed to begin last week.)  Please let us know about your experiences in the comments section below.