WASHINGTON — Republicans on Thursday defeated Democrats’ jobs bill, including an extension of weekly unemployment benefits for more than a million people out of work more than six months.
The 57-41 vote fell three votes short of the 60 required to crack a GOP filibuster.
The rejected bill would also have provided $16 billion in new aid to states, preserving the jobs of thousands of state and local government workers and providing what White House officials called an insurance policy against a double-dip recession. It also included dozens of tax breaks sought by business lobbyists, and tax increases on domestically produced oil and on investment fund managers.
The defeat of the bill means that unemployment benefits will phase out for more than 200,000 people a week.