Reid says he is hopeful for the bill to pass the Senate but cannot predict what happens in the House.<\/p>\n
US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) has said the Senate will vote Monday on a bill that includes a three-month extension of emergency unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Reid said that he hopes the bill, co-sponsored by Nevada’s Republican Sen. Dean Heller, will be approved by the upper chamber.<\/p>\n “I hope we can get that done,” said Reid, praising Heller for breaking away \u00c5\u201cfrom the tea party folks who don’t want to do anything” and joining \u00c5\u201cus.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Reid said he was not optimistic that the Republican-controlled House of Representatives would approve the temporary extension of the federal unemployment benefits as well, calling the lower chamber a \u00c5\u201cblack hole of legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00c5\u201cWe\u00e2\u201e\u00a2ll see what happens,\u201d he told the Associated Press on Monday. “I don’t predict anything in the House.”<\/p>\n Nevada has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, and roughly 17,000 Americans in the state lost their benefits when the program expired Saturday.<\/p>\n According to White House officials, US President Barack Obama has endorsed the proposal, introduced by Senators Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island) and Dean Heller (R-Nevada), which seeks to temporarily extend unemployment benefits.<\/p>\n However, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) and some other Republicans have vowed to oppose another extension. They argue that US policy makers must focus on creating jobs rather than extending unemployment aid.<\/p>\n On Saturday, 1.3 million Americans lost their unemployment benefits after Congress failed to extend an emergency federal program under which jobless American workers received unemployment insurance payments.<\/p>\n Before December 28, 38 percent of unemployed Americans received unemployment insurance through their state or federal government. But now, as the program has expired, only a quarter of jobless Americans will receive the benefits, the lowest rate in over half a century.<\/p>\n AN\/ISH<\/p>\n<\/div>\n