From Cleveland: WASHINGTON, D.C.— Some unemployed Americans could find it harder to draw jobless benefits under a bill the U.S. House of Representatives passed this week.

The bill would allow states to require drug testing as a condition of eligibility.

Beneficiaries without a high school degree or GED would have to work toward that diploma to get unemployment aid.

And the bill would reduce the maximum number of weeks for getting benefits, dropping from 99 weeks in high unemployment states like Ohio to 59 weeks.

This would push 3.3 million people off unemployment benefits nationwide, 74,335 of them in Ohio, say congressional Democrats who decry the measures.

The bill, which passed 234-193 Tuesday, was promoted as a way to extend this year’s 2 percent payroll tax holiday and assure that some jobless benefits continued. It included a proposal by Wadsworth Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci to redirect some unemployment compensation to employers if they hire and train someone who has lost a job.

Another Ohio Republican, U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson of Marietta, said the bill is a step toward fiscal responsibility “without pulling the rug out from under hard-working Americans and those that are seeking work that are suffering because of this Obama economy.”

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