WASHINGTON (PAI) – After months of stalling caused by Senate Republican filibustering, Congress finally extended jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed.  Democratic President Barack Obama signed the bill July 22.

The Senate approved the bill 59-39, overcoming the GOP roadblock.  Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both R-Maine, broke ranks and voted for it, joining 55 Democrats and the two independents.  The House tally was 272-152.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said lawmakers finally are aiding the long-term unemployed – and added the solons didn’t do enough.  Obama put the number of jobless at 2.5 million.  He urged passage of aid to states and to small businesses, too.

“Finally, the Senate has overcome the final hurdle to provide relief for more than 2 million people who have lost their benefits since Republicans in Congress launched their latest political stall tactics against the jobless,” Trumka said.

“Millions of Americans will have the means to feed their families and pay some bills while they seek work.  We still need our leaders to do more, not less, to create jobs and sustain the economic recovery.  Our nation must invest in jobs now – so we can lay a foundation for long-term growth and shared prosperity,” he added.

As approved, the legislation would extend federally funded unemployment benefits, available to long-term jobless after their state benefits expire, until just after the November election.  The cost would be $34 billion. Republicans said the money should be taken from other programs – such as the Troubled Assets Relief Program, also known as bank bailout repayments – so as to not increase the federal deficit.

No other measures to help the jobless were in the legislation.  That means extension of COBRA for the jobless was dropped.  So was aid to state and local governments to avert layoffs of 900,000 government workers and 300,000 in schools.

A bill summary provided by the House also said states cannot cut their levels of regular unemployment benefits.  And emergency benefits claimants will not have their benefits cut if “intermittent earnings re-qualifies them for regular, state unemployment benefits – which may provide lower payments because the claimant’s more recent wages were lower,” the fact sheet adds.

The Senate “finally overcame weeks of parliamentary roadblocks by a partisan

minority, and voted to restore desperately needed unemployment insurance assistance to two and a half million Americans who lost their jobs in the recession,” Obama said.