USATODAY.com - Efforts to extend federal unemployment benefits collapse


— Last-minute efforts to extend an expiring unemployment compensation program collapsed in Congress on Wednesday, confronting hundreds of thousands of jobless workers with the loss of benefits during the Christmas season.

Senate Republicans and Democrats alike blamed the House GOP for the impasse, and Majority Leader Tom Daschle urged President Bush to press the leadership to reconsider. "I have to say I think it's a story right out of Charles Dickens," said Daschle, D-S.D. "Ebenezer Scrooge had a last-minute conversion. I would hope that our colleagues in the House would do so."