in our last hour, meredith schier weighed in on what this means for the congress and the american people. >> there are three pieces to the bill. the payroll tax cut extension. that is the number one priority of the white house since last august when they unveiled their jobs bill. that piece was basically the most supported piece of all and it went through because house republicans said earlier this week and late last week that they would consider moving forward with that provision without offsetting it. that was one of the biggest c e complicatiocom complications to find it. republicans took $100 billion off the table. people who get their paychecks will not see more money taken away from those paychecks because this tax cut won't lapse. second part is unemployment benefits. there have been changes and reductions in the number of weeks of eligibility. with federal jobless benefits. the eligibility that states have is based on their unemployment rate at the time and also over the course of the past three years. there is something called extended benefits which had been passed to give an e