Last call for unemployment benefits

Last call for unemployment benefits? | MSNBC


The window of opportunity for reviving jobless benefits is closing fast.
Democrats have now struggled for months to renew the federal benefits for the long-term unemployed as Republicans have blocked one bill after another. Now advocates for more jobless aid say that time is almost up: The last politically feasible opportunity for Congress to act is coming at the end of March.
That’s when Congress must take up what’s known as the “doc fix”—a fix to a flawed payment formula for Medicare providers that both Democrats and Republicans always find a way to address. It’s the last major fiscal decision that Congress is guaranteed to make for months, and Democrats are hoping to work unemployment benefits into the same discussions over what to do when the Medicare payment fix expires on March 31.