By David Harrison, CQ Staff

Outlines of a possible GOP proposal to preserve benefits for the long-term unemployed are beginning to take shape as the House Republican Conference prepares for a closed-door meeting Friday to devise a strategy for handling jobless aid and other legislation awaiting action before year’s end.

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said Thursday that a group of Republicans from both chambers has been discussing with party leaders a plan to renew these benefits, which will expire beginning early next year. The renewal plan depends on several conditions, DeMint said. The cost must be offset, and the renewal must incorporate both an overhaul of unemployment insurance programs and provisions that would create jobs, he said.

DeMint’s position can be seen as an opening bid by some Senate and House conservatives as negotiations accelerate over continuing the long-term benefits. Such Democrats as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland have insisted that extending unemployment benefits should not be pared with offsetting spending cuts because the benefits will be phased out once the economy recovers.

Although House and Senate leaders in both parties insist that benefits for workers who have been jobless for long periods will be extended before the end of the year, Democrats and Republicans must resolve considerable differences in their approaches as they face an increasingly crowded legislative agenda and little time as Congress tries to wrap up its work in just a few weeks.

“What we hope to do is try to turn this into a jobs plan in effect, where we have something that first of all pays for the extension, that reforms the program in some way but also adds a job component that will increase jobs, not just increase unemployment,” DeMint said. “We’re looking for a way to extend it, but only if we’re improving the jobs situation, not making it worse.”

Asked what that “job component” might look like, DeMint suggested “opening up energy,” an indication that Republicans may try to authorize an expansion of oil and natural gas drilling to any legislative vehicle that renews jobless benefits.

Earlier this month, House Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, floated the idea of opening more land to drilling as a way to offset the cost of a surface transportation reauthorization bill. It remains to be seen how closely the plan Boehner and other House Republican leaders put together will resemble the option favored by DeMint.

Linking Aid to GOP Jobs Bills

In 2008 and 2009, Congress approved programs of jobless benefits financed by the federal government that take effect after workers have exhausted their state-paid unemployment coverage, which typically lasts 28 weeks. The long-term federal aid was intended to be temporary, but the persistently weak economy has led lawmakers to extend the programs multiple times.

The current extension is due to run out in the first few days of January, which would cut off aid to 6 million unemployed people over the course of 2012. If Congress does not renew the benefits, advocates say, the loss of money for the economy will imperil the recovery. A one-year extension would cost roughly $50 billion.

House Republicans are likely to combine into a single bill the renewal of jobless benefits, an extension of the temporary Social Security payroll tax cut enacted last December and other measures.

On Thursday, Boehner said the package might incorporate some of the roughly 21 House-passed bills that Republicans say would create jobs but that are unlikely to move in the Democratic Senate. Many of those bills would roll back federal regulations and expand energy production. It is a strategy that is unlikely to be acceptable to Democrats.

“There clearly are some of those jobs bills and other ideas that we have that we think would help create more employment opportunity in America,” Boehner said. “That may be considered here.”