House eyes extending jobless benefits: Hoyer

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With the unemployment rate at its highest in two decades, the U.S. House of Representatives will work to extend jobless benefits "when it becomes necessary," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said on Tuesday.

The Maryland Democrat also said he hopes that the positive effects of the $787 billion economic stimulus package Congress passed in February would be apparent in the coming months, despite some criticism from Republicans that it was not effective.

"It is appropriate to extend unemployment (benefits) when it runs out. We've done that in the past. My expectation would be we will do it ... when it becomes necessary," Hoyer said, responding to a question from a reporter.

On the broader issue of the shape of the U.S. economy and the possible need for additional economic stimulus, Hoyer responded, "I'm hopeful this quarter and in the next quarter of the year ... that we will see some positive effect" of the $787 billion in planned government spending to pull the economy out of recession.

Last week, Hoyer talked about the possibility of a second economic stimulus bill, spooking markets at the prospects of more deficit spending. But at Tuesday's press conference he said: "We want to see how the (current) recovery act is implemented and the success we have with it."

On Saturday, President Barack Obama said more time was needed for the huge stimulus initiative to work. In his weekly radio address, Obama said the legislation "was not designed to work in four months -- it was designed to work over two years."

Republicans have been citing continued rising unemployment as evidence the measure has been ineffective and public opinion polls indicate support was slipping for the law, which will contribute to a huge federal deficit this year and next.

Democrats have countered that only a small percentage of the $787 billion has been distributed so far and that without the stimulus spending, U.S. unemployment would be even worse.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Additional reporting by Jackie Frank; Editing by Dan Grebler)