Democrats, Jobless Benefits | featured news

The Democrats' hard-won victory comes after the GOP tried to stall the $33.9-billion package for weeks. President Obama signed legislation extending unemployment benefits Thursday for 2.5 million jobless Americans, a hard-fought achievement his party will use to portray Republicans as callous to the needs of ordinary workers in a fall election campaign tied to the country's economic fate.

The demise of Democrats' jobs-agenda legislation means that unemployment benefits will phase out for more than 200,000 people a week. Governors who had counted on fresh federal aid will now have to consider more budget cuts, tax increases and layoffs of state workers.

Democratic officials said the House may try to revive the long-stalled jobless aid bill next week as a stand-alone bill shorn of controversial tax and spending provisions that prompted Senate Republicans to filibuster it on Thursday.