Jobs, Unemployment Benefits Extension | featured news

More than 230,000 jobless Americans will lose their unemployment insurance by this weekend as reductions in the federal program that provides extended benefits to the long-term unemployed take broader effect.

Republicans in the House have blocked a bill that would have extended jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed beyond the holiday season.

Congress is one House vote away from resuming unemployment payments to millions of people whose benefits have lapsed as the nation suffers through a wretched job market.

The Senate's second-ranking Republican leader says he expects GOP lawmakers will vote to extend unemployment benefits this week — derailing a fellow Republican's objections.