Fifty-nine out of 100 U.S. Senators voted to advance a bill to extend assistance for the long-term unemployed on Feb. 6, but that was one vote short of the 60 needed to break a Republican filibuster.
The vote makes it unlikely that Congress can approve the measure soon, undercutting a key aspect of President Obama’s economic recovery plan.
Republicans and Democrats had been trying to reach a solution that would allow people who have exhausted their unemployment insurance to continue receiving benefits as long as the government offsets the $6 billion cost. But in the end, legislators couldn’t agree how to pay for it.
“We’ve given them everything they wanted. Paid for,” said Senator Harry Reid of Nevada. He said Democrats would keep pushing to extend the benefits, which expired at the end of last year, cutting off more than 1.3 million Americans. That number has since grown to more than 1.7 million.
This is the third time the GOP has filibustered unemployment insurance since the new year. Republicans claim that they want to extend unemployment insurance, but these claims were undermined by an internal GOP memo leaked last month, which outlined the talking points Republicans should use in explaining why they oppose extending jobless benefits.