Washington DC, Nov 6 (THAINDIAN NEWS) US President Barack Obama is all set to sign a $24 billion bill which is going to give tax incentives to prospective homebuyers and it will even extend unemployment benefits to the jobless people.

The White House will have a signing ceremony on Friday after the House voted 403-12 for the stimulus measure. The Senate also went with the flow and approved it unanimously on Wednesday.

The White House said, that ‘the bill, which also includes tax cuts for struggling businesses, builds on provisions in the $787 billion stimulus package enacted last February that aim at spurring job creation’.

“The truth is that long-term unemployment remains at its highest rate since we began measuring it in 1948,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said. About one-third of the 15 million people out of work have gone at least six months without a job.

The credit, said Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley of Nevada, “will allow more people to purchase a home in my district and help stop the continued downward spiral in housing prices caused by the foreclosure crisis.”