Democrats, Unemployment Benefits Extension | 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.

Democrats are expected to overcome Republican opposition to the package of new aid for unemployed Americans.

Senate Democrats are set to pass a key hurdle Tuesday on extending unemployment benefits for an estimated 2.5 million unemployed Americans and are expected to overcome a Republican filibuster of the new aid.

Senate Democrats said Thursday they have reached a deal to extend unemployment insurance benefits to the nearly 2 million jobless ...