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Currently, the unemployment rate stands at 9.5 percent and about 14.6 million people are out of work. The duration of unemployment is even more worrisome. About 43 percent of unemployed workers had been out of work for six months or more and 29 percent of unemployed workers had been jobless for more than a year, according to a report by the Congress' Joint Economic Committee.
The Senate on Tuesday cleared a major procedural hurdle to move ahead on the bill, ending a seven-week impasse over the legislation. By a vote of 60 to 40, Senate Democrats overcame Republicans' blocking tactics called "filibuster," by which minorities in the chamber can talk a bill to death.
Republicans insisted that they are not against extending jobless benefits, but the bill should be paid for by cuts in spending or tax increases, in a way not to further burden the federal budget.
The U.S. federal budget deficit topped one trillion dollars in the first nine months ended June this fiscal year, according to the Treasury Department. The red ink in fiscal year 2010 is expected to be around 1.5 trillion dollars.
Democrats justified the bill by emphasizing the plight of the unemployed. They also argued that people who receive the benefits would spend the money immediately, which would spur consumer expenditure and the overall private demand.