The number of unemployed who are near their final unemployment checks is at a staggering 1.2 million workers, and their checks are due to end at the close of December, according to the Washington-think tank, the Economic Policy Institute.

From the EPI blog post:

The unemployment rate has increased to 6.5% nationally, and it is above 8.5% in some states. In the second week of November, an additional 516,000 workers filed for unemployment insurance, the highest level of new claims filed since the aftermath of September 2001... Over 890,000 unemployed workers already have exhausted their 13-week extension,and another 1.2 million are projected to exhaust benefits by year's end. Without these benefits, the Congressional Budget Office finds that about 50% of the long-term unemployed fall under the poverty line. Congress should act swiftly to extend benefits for another seven weeks in all states, and an additional 20 weeks (for a total of 33) in states with unemployment over 6.0%.

Will another emergency extension of benefits occur like it it did for July 2008? Would it pass the House and the Senate?