WASHINGTON (AP and KQED) — Senate Republicans narrowly blocked the advance of legislation to restore benefits for the long-term unemployed on Thursday for the second time in less than a month, and Democrats said they intended to call yet another vote on the issue.
"We're one Republican vote away from restoring unemployment benefits for 1.7 million Americans," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
The White House called the outcome disappointing, and California Sen. Dianne Feinstein tweeted her displeasure after the vote:
Blocked again. Only one Senate GOP vote stood in the way of restoring unemployment benefits for tens of thousands of Californians. #renewui
— Sen Dianne Feinstein (@SenFeinstein) February 6, 2014
About 1.3 million Americans, including 222,000 Californians, lost jobless benefits in December when the federal program to assist the long-term unemployed was not extended. Since then, Democrats say the national total has swelled to more than 1.7 million.
The measure that failed Thursday called for a three-month renewal of an expired program that provided up to 47 weeks of federal benefits when state-paid aid runs out, generally after 26 weeks. The cost was estimated at slightly more than $6 billion over a decade. It would have been offset by lowering pension obligations for some companies, a step that would have increased their taxable income.