Topeka ? Kansans who lose their jobs will not have to wait one week before receiving unemployment benefits under a proposal before state officials.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has scheduled a news conference today in which sources said she would endorse the measure and ask the Legislature to approve it.

Sebelius, several lawmakers, labor and business officials have been working on ways to use $78 million in federal funds that Kansas received as part of a national economic stimulus package.

Under a proposal recommended by a committee of business and labor interests, $13.9 million would go toward eliminating the one-week waiting period for unemployment benefits for one year; $1.9 million would be used to upgrade computer equipment at the Kansas Department of Human Resources, and the remaining funds would be left in the unemployment trust fund.

The fund is paid for by employers and is used to provide jobless benefits. By keeping the bulk of the federal funds in the trust fund, it keeps down the premiums that employers pay into the fund.

Department of Human Resources officials said the one-week waiting period was originally put into law to allow time to manually process claims. With computers, that one-week wait is no longer necessary.

Eliminating the one-week wait will not affect the maximum duration of benefits, which is currently 26 weeks. But it will give an extra week of benefits to jobless Kansans who are able to find jobs before reaching the end of their eligibility period. The average duration of unemployment benefits is 16 weeks.

Disbursement of the federal Reed Act funds has been a political hot potato in Topeka.

The funds were part of a federal economic stimulus package to states and were sent in March 2002 to Kansas, where it became entangled in a struggle between lawmakers and former Gov. Bill Graves’ administration.

¢Reed Act distributions

The Graves’ administration wanted to use about $4 million of the $78 million to upgrade computers at the Department of Human Resources. Several lawmakers opposed that expense.