Two million Americans will lose jobless benefits

A new report warns that more than two million Americans will lose their federal unemployment benefits, if Congress fails to extend the jobless-aid program.

Another 1 million Americans, who exhaust their state benefits, will not be eligible for the federal program in the first quarter of 2013, according to the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group.

The report estimates that 1.3 million jobless workers will lose their benefits immediately at the start of 2014. Another 850,000 workers will exhaust their regular unemployment insurance in March.

In 2008, Congress temporarily expanded the unemployment-benefit program in response to the financial crisis and recession.

The federally funded Emergency Unemployment Compensation program is slated to expire on December 31.

Members of Congress must now decide whether they will extend the filing deadline for the 10th time since the Great Recession began five years ago.

Advocates for the jobless are already lobbying for another extension, noting that the unemployment rate is hovering around 8 percent.

There are 4.1 million workers in the US who have been out of a job for at least six months. About one-third of them rely on their unemployment benefits.

In addition, lawmakers showed little interest in preventing a $5 billion reduction to food stamp benefits last week. The cut affected nearly 48 million recipients, many of them jobless.