Today the U.S. Senate voted, 60-37 (invoking cloture), on the motion to proceed for S. 1845 – the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Extension Act. This would extend the unemployment benefits for the 1.3 million people who lost them in December.

There were no surprises in the vote from Missouri’s senators:

Question: On Cloture on the Motion to Proceed (Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Proceed to S. 1845 )

Vote Number: 2

Vote Date: January 7, 2014, 10:44 AM

Required For Majority: 3/5 Vote Result: Cloture on the Motion to Proceed Agreed to

Measure Number: S. 1845 (Emergency Unemployment Compensation Extension Act )

Measure Title: A bill to provide for the extension of certain unemployment benefits, and for other purposes.

Vote Counts: YEAs 60

NAYs 37

Not Voting 3

Blunt (R-MO), Nay

McCaskill (D-MO), Yea

[emphasis added]

No explanations for the difference of opinion yet.

From the White House Council of Economic Advisers (December 2013):

New Report: The Economic Benefits of Extending Unemployment Insurance

Posted by Jason Furman, Betsey Stevenson on December 05, 2013 at 09:00 AM EST

The United States economy continues to recover from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and while substantial progress has been made, more work remains to boost economic growth and speed job creation. Despite ten consecutive quarters of GDP growth and 7.8 million private sector jobs added since early 2010, the unemployment rate is unacceptably high at 7.3 percent, and far too many families are still struggling to regain the foothold they had prior to the crisis.

The Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) program authorized by Congress in 2008 has provided crucial support to the economy and to millions of Americans who lost jobs through no fault of their own. Under current law, EUC will end on December 28, 2013[1].

This report argues that allowing EUC to expire would be harmful to millions of workers and their families, counterproductive to the economic recovery, and unprecedented in the context of previous extensions to earlier unemployment insurance programs.

[….]

The effects of allowing EUC benefits to expire would be felt nationwide:

Job-seekers who will lose access to EUC benefits can be found in nearly every state.

[….]

State [/]  Unemployed losing access to benefits

Missouri 84,500

[….]

[emphasis added]

As if the House will do anything.

Previously: U.S. Senate confirmation vote on Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen (January 6, 2014)