Senate, Unemployment Benefits Extension | featured news

Senior lawmakers said on Sunday they were optimistic about striking a deal to extend Bush-era tax cuts for all taxpayers and continue emergency jobless aid for millions of long-term unemployed Americans.

The Senate voted on Wednesday to reinstate unemployment benefits for about 2.5 million Americans whose checks were cut off in recent months due to a partisan standoff over deficit spending.

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.

A vote on the package is set for Tuesday, minutes after the swearing-in of a new West Virginia senator gives Democrats the ability to overcome a filibuster.

On the eve of a vote to extend jobless benefits, President Obama urged Republican senators to set aside partisanship and vote for a package that would provide relief to 2.5-million out-of-work Americans.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs predicted on Tuesday that the Senate will pass an extension of unemployment benefits sometime next week after nearly a month of delays over the size and scope of the package.

"I think this president will press and my belief is the Senate will take up [the package]," said Gibbs, "and we will pass next week an extension of unemployment insurance."

Speaking at the daily briefing, Gibbs hinted that the White House and allied campaign committees will be monitoring the vote closely for electoral implications.

The Senate failed to pass an extension of federal unemployment benefits last night on a vote of 58-41. The Senate's fourth attempt this month to pass an extension of federal unemployment benefits failed a cloture vote last night.

Republicans in the Senate have defeated an election-year bill to continue weekly jobless benefits for millions of long-term unemployed workers.

The measure passes the Senate and House largely along partisan lines, with most Republicans opposed. By Richard Simon President Obama signed an extension of jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed Thursday night that will allow those whose aid ...

A nearly $140 billion bill to extend unemployment benefits and a host of expiring tax cuts cleared a procedural hurdle Tuesday in the Senate on a vote of 66-34, setting up passage of the bill possibly later in the day.

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