Report: Deal to extend payroll tax will include drug testing for unemployed

CNN is reporting that in exchange for Republicans agreeing to extend the payroll tax cut, Democratic Congressmen have agreed to allow drug testing for those receiving unemployment benefits and limit the time people can receive unemployment checks:

These cuts will likely start to take effect while the average duration of unemployment is still at a historically high level. The details are not yet final, but it looks like the maximum length of unemployment insurance benefits will be reduced by 36 weeks in the 33 states that have unemployment rates below mean average and by 26 weeks in the 12 states that have unemployment rates above 9 percent. While national unemployment has ticked down recently, the average duration of unemployment is still high, at 40.1 weeks. That’s two weeks longer than a year ago when the unemployment rate was nearly a full percentage point higher than it is today. Unless the duration of unemployment reverses trebnd and starts going down, more and more unemployed people will start losing their government support before they find a new job under this deal.