Republicans in the Senate have defeated an election-year bill to continue weekly jobless benefits for millions of long-term unemployed workers.
The 57-41 loss was a major blow for President Barack Obama and Democrats. They needed three more votes — for a total of 60 — to stop a GOP filibuster.
The rejected bill would also have provided billions of dollars in new aid, protecting the jobs of tens of thousands of state and local government workers as the country begins to emerge from the worst recession in seven decades.
Democrats have been trying to advance the measure for months as an insurance policy against a double-dip recession.
Despite another round of cuts to the measure aimed at pacifying GOP deficit concerns, not a single Republican broke with party leaders determined to kill the measure for adding more than $30 billion to the deficit.
