(Updated, 7:45 a.m.)

WASHINGTON – The House of Representatives passed a bill late Tuesday that would keep unemployment checks coming to out-of-work citizens in Rhode Island and other states through the fall.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., would provide 13 additional weeks of benefits to workers in the 27 states where the unemployment rate is 8.5 percent or higher. The August jobless rate in Rhode Island was 12.8 percent. Nationally, the rate stood at 9.7 percent.

U.S. Reps. Patrick J. Kennedy, D-R.I., and James Langevin, D-R.I., both voted for the bill, which passed 331-83. “This bill provides a critical boost to the many Rhode Islanders who are struggling to find employment,” Langevin said in a statement.

The Senate is expected to act soon on the measure. U.S. Sens. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., the two top Senate Democrats after Majority Leader Harry Reid, said Tuesday they hope to pass an extension quickly.

The nation’s unemployment insurance system is paid for by state and federal taxes on businesses, with each state setting its own guidelines for the amount of and duration of eligibility for unemployment checks.

The recession already has led Congress to raise the maximum time a person can receive unemployment checks from 26 weeks to 79 weeks in the hardest-hit states. The additional 13 weeks would help an estimated 314,000 people nationwide, according to the House Ways and Means Committee.

Under current law, out-of-work Rhode Islanders can receive unemployment checks for a maximum of 79 weeks, or about a year and a half. The state offers the second-most generous benefit in the country after Massachusetts, with a maximum benefit of $546 without dependents or $682 with five dependents. (The amount that jobless workers receive is based on their salaries before they lost their jobs.)

In Rhode Island, more than 2,800 people had exhausted their unemployment benefits as of last Friday, according to Laura Hart, a spokeswoman for the R.I. Department of Labor and Training. The department is projecting an average exhaustion rate of 150 people a week in the coming months, which would bring the total number of exhaustions to about 4,800 by the end of the year.

The economic stimulus law signed in February by President Barack Obama added an extra $25 payment to unemployment benefits and made the first $2,400 in benefits tax-free. The National Employment Law Project, a nonprofit advocacy group, estimates the federal government spent $104.33 million on unemployment benefits for Rhode Islanders between February and July alone.

The long-term unemployment rate, which counts all workers who have been looking for a job for six months or more, is currently at its highest level since the government began calculating it in 1948, with 5 million Americans out of work for at least half a year.

“It smashes any other figure we have ever seen,” Andrew Stettner, deputy director of the National Employment Law Project, told The Associated Press. “It is an unthinkable number.”

Langevin’s office said the extension will apply to unemployed workers who become eligible prior to Jan. 1. To qualify, the rules require that an individual lost a job through no fault of his or her own; is able to work and actively searching for a job; and worked 20 weeks prior to being laid off.

If an extension becomes law, the R.I. Department of Labor and Training will notify individuals who are eligible by mail and general information will be posted online at dlt.state.ri.us, Hart said.

An earlier version of this article was published on Sept. 22.