companies are provided unemployed trainees for free. The state provides a $240 stipend -- cut back from $600 last fall -- to the trainee each week for up to eight weeks.

"It looks more like work than training," National Employment Law Project deputy director Andrew Stettner said after reviewing the program. "You can’t try someone out and not pay them. It’s not allowed under our nation’s labor laws."

But the idea has enjoyed some level of bipartisan support.

“The Georgia plan sounds pretty interesting,” Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) told Fox News host Chris Wallace in September. “I think that’s something we are looking at, which is unemployment reform.”

Democratic President Barack Obama has also praised the program.

"There is a smart program in Georgia," Obama said during an August bus tour. "You're essentially earning a salary and getting your foot in the door into that company."

Federal unemployment insurance currently provides up to 99 weeks of benefits, but that would be scaled by to 26 weeks if Congress does not extend the program by Dec. 31.