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Show Utah unemployed saved by last minute legislation The possibility of Utah's unemployed facing a cutoff of funds seems less likely like-ly today, as the U.S. Senate Thursday approved ap-proved a funding bill which now goes to the President's desk for his signature. The President warned he would veto any bill which did away with the withholding tax on savings accounts. That amendment was a rider to the unemployment funding bill, and was the major reason the bill could not get through the Senate. Thursday the amendment was deleted and Senators worked all night to prepare the final draft of the bill, so it could find its way to the President before unemployment funding ran out. Nearly 38,000 Utah unemployed would have lost funds by next Wednesday if the measure had not been resolved. Those people are basically living from one unemployment check to the next and would have been in dire straights if the checks stopped. The maximum benefits for Utah's unemployed is $166 weekly, with the average about $114. State officials said that if President Reagan signs the bill by Monday, there should be no delay in unemployment checks. Money can be transferred from the federal to the state level in a matter of hours. Utah's funding to the unemployed ended end-ed in February, as a constant draining of state funds finally depleted the resources. Since then Utah has been borrowing bor-rowing from the federal government, something they have never before faced. The U.S. Department of Labor underestimated the needs of Utah and other states in the same situation, and thus were also about to run out of money. Laris Hunting, Vernal Job Service Director, said that if President Reagan signs the present bill, there should be no delay in getting unemployment checks out. |