Congress moved a few steps closer yesterday to extending unemployment insurance for jobless Americans and boosting the economy more broadly. First, as we noted yesterday, the U.S. House approved the final version of a defense appropriations bill (H.R. 3326) that includes a $13 billion provision to extends both COBRA health coverage and jobless benefits by two months. If all goes according to plan, the Senate will take up the measure Friday or Saturday to protect those who are scheduled to exhaust their unemployment insurance in January. There is an outside chance that in their effort to stall the health care reform bill -- yesterday they slowed things down by reading aloud Sen. Bernie Sander's (I-VT) full single-payer proposal -- the Republican caucus could clog the legislative schedule, endangering the Democrats' ability to pass the appropriations package this year.

But for now, things look promising.

The House followed up the defense vote by passing an additional $154 billion economic aid package (H.R. 2847). Not only would the legislation continue to temporarily fund a higher share of all Medicaid costs incurred by state governments, but both unemployment aid and the COBRA subsidy would be extended by an additional six months. The bill would also fund $48 million worth of infrastructure spending and $27 billion worth of supplementary state aid using leftover funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Every Illinois Republican voted against the measure, along with local Democratic Reps. Melissa Bean, Bill Foster, and Mike Quigley.

In a statement following the roll call, Rep. Aaron Schock said that it was "astounding Speaker Pelosi would repeat the same mistakes with her second stimulus as she did with her first." Someone should send Schock a copy of the state-by-state stimulus package analysis released today by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. According to the organization's research, an estimated 305,000 Illinoisans have been lifted above the poverty line due to the stimulus bill. Or perhaps the freshman Republican should talk to the vast majority of economists who say the stimulus is working just as promised.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin told The Hill that his chamber would consider the jobs bill on “the first of the year.”