Last night, the Senate passed H.R. 3548, the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2009. The House is expected to pass the Senate version quickly—perhaps today—and President Obama is likely to sign it.

The bill authorizes up to 14 additional weeks of benefits for unemployed workers nationwide, provided they have already exhausted their earlier authorized benefits or will do so by the end of the year, plus an additional 6 weeks of benefits in states with unemployment higher than 8.5%. A cost estimate for the bill puts it at about $24 per U.S. family.

An article in the Detroit Free Press points out a wrinkle in that extra 6-week benefit for hard-hit states:

However, under the legislation as written, it is unclear how many people in those high unemployment states could ever collect that additional 6 weeks of benefits. To get them, a person in one of the affected states would have to exhaust the newly authorized benefits of up to 14 weeks first, and do so by the end of the year. But there are only eight weeks left in 2009.

I suspect we might be hearing about that more here on WashingtonWatch.com.

But the point of this post is to share a very kind note I received yesterday from a visitor, regarding the 50,000+ comments we received on the bill:

I wanted to take a moment and thank you for the great job hosting the forum on the Unemployment Extension in the Senate.

I have a vested interest in the success of this bill and during the initial stages searched for relevant content relating to the progress and grass roots efforts of regular citizens. I could find no other source that provided up to the minute information from so many different sources. Kudos to you and your team!

I also noticed the presence of many negative posts from the “trolls” and was very surprised by your restraint in regards to their comments. I commend you for allowing different points of view through discussion even if some of the comments were truly mean spirited.

My point is that we must allow for the free disemination of information, both good and bad. I’m personally relieved after such a drawn out process but I truly believe without your constant support of this forum the pressure would have been unbearable in the absence of new information.

Kudos to washingtonwatch.com and their entire company. Keep up the good work, there are many more important decisions in the near future and with your help facts will overcome unknown fears.

It’s very gratifying to get a little “thank you” for the work of hosting the site and moderating the often very rough conversation on this bill. I was barraged with people asking me to ban other visitors for making what were often truly inappropriate comments, but I think a strong commitment to free exchange of information can produce the best results.

Our so-called “trolls” have things they want to say. They lack social skills, and they’re obviously very frustrated. It’s up to this site to give them a productive outlet for engagement. I’ve got some ideas for doing that, and we’ll give those a try—as well as more comment controls—in the coming months and years. Your wishes of “good luck” are welcome.

And good luck to all the folks who are battling unemployment out there. For all the negativity I have dealt with as manager of the site, the goodness of the people trying to learn information, work together, and better themselves shines through.

I hope nobody ever needs another extension of unemployment compensation—because I hope everyone gets jobs! But I also hope many of you will continue to stay engaged with Congress through this site.

It takes active citizenship to run a good government and society. I hope the folks who have gotten engaged with government through this process will continue to pay attention—to all the issues the federal government deals with.

We’ll be here to work with you.