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Politics

Measure to extend unemployment benefits fails House vote

By Michael A. Memoli and Lisa Mascaro, Tribune Washington Bureau
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Reporting from Washington — 

Legislation that would have extended unemployment benefits for an additional three months failed to earn the required supermajority in the House of Representatives on Thursday.

The final vote was 258-154, ordinarily sufficient to pass legislation. But Democrats brought the measure to the floor using a legislative tactic that required approval from two-thirds of the House.

Currently, benefits are set to expire on Nov. 30 for an estimated 4 million Americans. The measure would have allowed those unemployed individuals to continue receiving benefits until Feb. 28, 2011.

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Democrats sought to portray Republicans as unsympathetic to the plight of Americans still struggling to seek employment, particularly as the holiday season is set to begin. Republicans have said any extension should only be passed if the $12.5-billion price tag were offset by spending cuts on other programs.

mmemoli@tribune.com

lmascaro@tribune.com

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Michael A. Memoli

Michael A. Memoli worked in the Los Angeles Times’ Washington, D.C., bureau from 2010-17, where he covered the White House, the 2016 presidential campaign, and national politics based in D.C. (plus a dozen or so swing states in presidential election years). A New Jersey native, he graduated from Loyola University in Maryland.

Lisa Mascaro

Lisa Mascaro previously covered Congress in Washington, D.C., for the Los Angeles Times. She left in February 2018. A Los Angeles-area native, she has reported across Southern California, edited, traveled the States and worked in Texas. While the Washington correspondent for the Las Vegas Sun, she contributed as the paper won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. An economics and political science graduate of UC Santa Barbara, she also studied in Budapest, Hungary.

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