For 1.3 million Americans who have been unemployed for six months or more, unemployment benefits may be nothing more than a memory as the Senate voted down two versions of bills that would extend those benefits. There are millions of other citizens who have been unemployed for less than six months who will no longer have a safety new in the near future unless an extension of the emergency unemployment insurance is passed through the Senate. Although some Senators remain optimistic, but many commentators and Senators believe that a bipartisan agreement is improbable. Both Democrats and Republicans blamed the other party for filibustering their own version of the bill.
See "Unemployment Extension Is Stalled, With 2 Proposals Defeated in the Senate", Ashley Parker, The New York Times, January 14, 2014