Reid said the proposal came from Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, a Democrat.

Any extension of the sequestration cuts would occur toward the end of the decade. In past disputes, Republicans have objected to up-front spending offset by far-off spending cuts.

Democrats need at least five Republican votes to advance legislation to restore the benefits. About a dozen Republicans have said they are open to extending the benefits as long as the cost is offset by budget reductions elsewhere.

Three months

Democrats earlier proposed a three-month extension of the jobless benefits, costing $6.4 billion, as emergency aid without offsetting it in the budget.

Democrats' push to extend the benefits marks the start of the party's election-year focus on income inequality. Democrats also will seek to raise the federal minimum wage and increase spending on infrastructure projects to create jobs.

Six Republicans who joined with Democrats on Jan. 7 to advance the three-month proposal have been joined by a handful of Republican colleagues who negotiated with Democrats over the past three days.

House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said yesterday his chamber would consider an extension of benefits "if it was paid for and if there were provisions that we could agree to that would get our economy moving again and put the American people back to work."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said Republicans are "moving the goal posts" on what they are seeking. Extending the benefits would stimulate the economy, she said.

"This money is spent immediately, injecting demand into the economy and creating jobs," Pelosi said.

The expanded program started in 2008, when the U.S. jobless rate was 5.6 percent, and at one point provided as many as 99 weeks of benefits for the long-term unemployed. At the end of 2013 the maximum was 73 weeks, including 26 weeks of state- funded benefits.

The national jobless rate in November was 7 percent.

The Democrats' proposal on disability benefits is a revision of a proposal by Ohio Republican Rob Portman. Reid had criticized that plan, saying it would "devastate" the disabled and was a non-starter.

Ayotte plan

Reid had rejected a proposal that a group of Senate Republicans pressed for at a news conference yesterday. The amendment proposed by Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire would require people who seek refundable child tax credits to have Social Security numbers.

Republicans at the event said adoption of Ayotte's measure would gain their support for extending jobless benefits.

"I will vote for the extension if you will pay for it," said Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, said yesterday she spoke to President Barack Obama several times as he courted her vote. She said he was "very receptive" to her proposal to link long-term unemployment benefits to job training.

"I was very encouraged by the president's response," Collins said.

In addition to Collins, Ayotte, Heller and Portman, Senate Republicans who supported advancing the expanded jobless benefits were Dan Coats of Indiana and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

Collins is the lone Senate Republican seeking re-election this year in a state Obama won in 2012. Coats, Heller and Portman represent states where the November jobless rate was higher than the nationwide rate.

The emergency benefits have been renewed 11 times since President George W. Bush put them in place. All extended benefits are covered by federal dollars, while initial jobless insurance comes from federal, state and employer funds.

Besides casting the measure as a moral imperative, Democrats are stepping up efforts to demonstrate the economic benefits of restoring the weekly payments.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Senate Democrats' campaign arm, is using the debate to try to cast Republicans as unconcerned about the poor. The committee is targeting Republican Senate candidates in Republican-leaning states including Arkansas, Georgia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana and West Virginia.

All except Georgia and Kentucky — where McConnell is seeking re-election — are states where Democrats are defending seats.

Republicans, meanwhile, accuse Democrats of trying to distract attention from the problems plaguing the rollout of Obama's signature 2010 health-care law.

"It takes a lot of chutzpah to spend an entire presidential term pushing policies that are supposedly meant to help the little guy, and then turn around and blame everybody else when they flop," McConnell said today in a floor speech. "But chutzpah won't solve the problem."