Senate breaks impasse on unemployment benefits

Published 11:28 pm Monday, April 12, 2010

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Monday took a major, and likely decisive, step toward restoring jobless benefits for hundreds of thousands of people, as those constituents endured an eighth consecutive day without assurances of any help.

Efforts to provide the benefits have been stalled while senators fought over how and whether to pay for the aid. A 60-34 Senate vote Monday to overcome a procedural hurdle and move to a final vote offered new hope that the impasse will be broken later this week.

In the meantime, the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group that studies employment issues, estimates that about 212,500 people lose benefits each week as Congress stalls. By the end of April, the total could be nearly 1 million.