The U.S. Congress has passed a bill renewing a payroll tax cut for 160 million workers and long-term unemployment benefits for many others.

The House of Representatives and the Senate passed the measure swiftly on Friday and sent it to President Barack Obama to sign into law.

The measure extends the tax cut and benefits through the end of 2012. They were set to expire at the end of this month.

Senator Max Baucus, a Democrat, announced a bipartisan agreement on the measure late Wednesday after a long day of negotiations between House and Senate members. The resulting bill maintains a tax cut of about $20 per week that would have expired at the end of February. Supporters of the payroll tax cut say it will boost the economy by giving workers an extra $1,000 a year to spend.

The negotiators also agreed to a provision that prevents steep cuts in payments for doctors treating patients on Medicare, the federal government’s health insurance program for elderly Americans.

The payroll tax cut and other provisions will be partly offset by government auctions of $22 billion of radio spectrum to mobile wireless companies.

Leaders in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives dropped a demand earlier this week to offset the payroll tax cut with a reduction in spending. The Republicans decided to give up the demand so President Obama and other Democrats could not use it against them as an election-year issue.