The extension, which is set to expire on December 28, 2013, was put in place in response to the 2008 economic crisis to help those who are unemployed longer than six months. It allows the unemployed to get as much as a year and a half of help while they search for work, even after their 26 weeks of state benefits run out.

Some 174,000 people are on the unemployment rolls in Puerto Rico, according to the latest island Labor Department numbers. Not renewing the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program represents the loss of some $175 million for Puerto Rico, where the jobless rate has risen for three straight months.

Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi, citing White House numbers, said earlier this month that more than 80,000 jobless people in Puerto Rico could be affected. He later said that number was inflated.

The expiration would impact people who receive as much as $500 per month in emergency jobless aid for up to 60 weeks.

After a sweeping vote by conservative Republicans controlling the U.S. House of Representatives and President Barack Obama’s Democratic allies, a bipartisan budget pact is in the hands of the Senate, where it will encounter stronger but probably futile resistance from Republicans.

The modest package passed by the House on Thursday would ease the harshest effects of another round of automatic spending cuts set to hit the Pentagon and domestic agencies next month. Supporters of the measure easily beat back attacks on it from conservative organizations that sometimes raise money by stoking conflict within the Republican Party.

At the same time, Democrats who were upset that the bill would not extend jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed suppressed their doubts to advance the measure to the Democratic-led Senate, where Obama’s allies appear set to clear it next week for his signature.

Senate Democrats promise to force a vote on extending unemployment benefits when the chamber reconvenes next year. They hope that political pressure after 1.3 million people lose their benefits on Dec. 28 will force GOP leaders to knuckle under and extend aid averaging under $300 a week to people who’ve been out of work longer than six months.

The bipartisan bill breezed through the House on a 332-94 vote, with lopsided majorities of Republicans and Democrats alike voting in favor.