Late Thursday night, President Obama signed a measure that extends the COBRA premium subsidy for another two months — to May 31, 2010.

The subsidy had expired on March 31, 2010 when Congress failed to act on this measure before its recess.  However, yesterday, Congress approved a bill that covers all those who have been laid off between April 1-April 15th (that would not have been eligible) and those who may be laid off through May 31, 2010. 

The President, in signing the bill, urged Congress to renew the extension through the end of 2010. It should also be noted that this same bill also extends unemployment benefits in some instances for another two months  (to June 2, 2010) as well.  The Washington DC Employment Law Update has some more details here.

As of early Friday afternoon, The U.S. Department of Labor had yet to update its website to reflect this information. For employers who are doing terminations over the next few days, it may make sense to hold back the COBRA notices until the new ones from the USDOL are updated and posted.  

The only change is to the date of eligibility of coverage so for employers, the same background information that has been given on previous extensions still apply.