Extended unemployment benefits are meant as a last-ditch safety net for an unemployed person who has exhausted all other state and federal benefits. But Wisconsin's unemployed became ineligible for the extension in April, when the state's unemployment rate improved enough that the state no longer qualified for the extra money.

The bill softens the qualifying language to make the state eligible again. The extension translates to $363 per week for a jobless person. The payments will be retroactive to April. DWD officials plan to mail out the first payments on Friday.

The benefits are completely federal and won't cost the state a cent. Still, it took months to get the bill to Walker's desk.

The delay stemmed in part to a lack of action from the Unemployment Insurance Council, a group of labor and business leaders that guide legislators on unemployment benefit policy.

The labor side of the council first suggested revising Wisconsin's qualifying language to retain the state's extension eligibility in February, two months before the extended benefits ran out. But business leaders on the council cautioned that any extension would give the unemployed a reason to put off going to work, creating an impasse.

The council finally met in late June and voted to recommend the Legislature move forward after business leaders conceded the economy was still struggling.

As the bill moved through the Legislature, minority Democrats in the Senate saw it as an opportunity to rail against a state budget provision that creates a one-week waiting period before the newly unemployed can collect their first government checks. State labor officials estimate the delay will save the state $50 million, but Democrats insist it will make life harder on people who suddenly find themselves out of work.

During a floor session last month, Democrats offered an amendment to the extension bill that would eliminate the waiting period. In a surprise move, majority Republicans agreed and attached the rider to the legislation.

But Walker supports the delay, and his fellow Republicans in the state Assembly refused to adopt the amendment. They sent the bill back to the Senate without the waiting period.

In a messy floor session Monday, Senate Republicans adopted the Assembly version with the delay still intact. Democrats called the Republican flip-floppers and questioned whether the first vote was just to make six Republican senators who face recall elections look more appealing to unemployed voters.

Eight senators face recall elections this month over their stances on Walker's contentious collective bargaining law. That plan strips most public workers of almost all their union rights.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, denied the reversal had anything to do with the recalls. He said he didn't expect his caucus to approve the amendment, but refusing to adopt the Assembly version would have delayed the benefits even longer.

Walker said Wednesday the bill was never about the waiting period and the legislative debate was "pure, raw politics."

"People at the end of their rope," Walker said, "need these 13 weeks."