(The extension passed the committee but remains stuck in Congress).
The 2011 Patriot Act extension passed the Senate later that day, and this time the controversial provisions were extended until 2015.
The reauthorization legislation, which was supported by the leadership of both parties, passed by a wide majority in the House and had been expected to pass easily in the Senate, where a similar extension passed unanimously last year.
Senator Jon Corzine, the New Jersey Democrat, has been trying to get another one-year extension passed in the Senate, but the measure has fallen victim to broader partisan wrangling on unrelated matters.
And the two-month payroll-tax-cut extension passed by the Senate on Saturday is expected to be voted down in the House, according to a G.O.P. leadership aide.
Hours after the refueling extension passed, he appeared on television to announce billions of dollars worth of new spending and loans to create jobs and help companies short of cash.
Iran has vowed to retaliate against the ISA extension, passed unanimously on Thursday, saying it violated last year's agreement with six major powers to curb its nuclear programme in return for lifting of international financial sanctions.
The extension passed by Congress and signed by President Bush in January -- giving many workers 13 weeks of additional benefits after their usual 26 weeks end -- is set to expire at the end of this month.
Republicans, eager to avoid another bruising fight, have signaled that they will drop the most controversial provisions in the version of the yearlong extension passed by the House earlier in December.
This week the swearing-in of a successor to Robert Byrd, the veteran senator who died last month, delivered to Democrats the extra vote they needed to break a Republican filibuster, and the extension passed at last.
