Just a few hours after the House of Representatives approved another extension of unemployment benefits for more than 2 million unemployed Americans, President Obama signed the measure.

The House voted 272-152 for the package. Thirty-one Republicans joined the Democrats in the majority, while 142 Republicans and 10 Democrats voted against the bill.

Thursday's passage by the House followed a rancorous and lengthy battle in the Senate to extend benefits, which has traditionally been an easy thing during economic hard times. Senate Republicans lined up against the extension, capitalizing in an election year on worries about deficit spending to make their case that Democrats were running up the debt.

“Today we put this sad chapter behind us,” said Representative Sander Levin, Democrat of Michigan and chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, the New York Times reported.

The Senate finally passed a bill extending unemployment benefits to more than 2 million jobless Americans. The legislation was previously held up by a Republican filibuster that finally broke on Tuesday. Still, the GOP further delayed passage for almost an additional 30 hours following the key procedural vote.

"Americans who are working day and night to get back on their feet and support their families in these tough economic times deserve more than obstruction and partisan game-playing," Obama said in a statement Wednesday night.

The Democratic majority passed the measure by a vote of 59-39, supported by Maine’s two Republican senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe—the last New England moderates standing. Senator Ben Nelson was the lone Democrat voting with Republicans to oppose the extension.

"This is welcome news for many families in Nevada and across the nation. But it should have never taken so long to get the support they deserve," said Senator Harry Reid after the bill passed. "I am terribly disappointed that, with the exception of my two colleagues from Maine, Republicans dragged this process out for weeks and weeks. They repeatedly refused to extend this emergency assistance, and then, after they lost the debate and the checks were written, they decided to keep us from putting them in the mail."

Republicans said they didn't object to extending the benefits, per se. What they wanted was the bill to include spending cuts elsewhere to make up for the $33 billion it will cost to increase benefits for as along as 99 weeks.

"The fact is, this debate isn't about unemployment insurance," said Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader in the Senate. "This debate is about whether in extending these benefits we should add to the debt or not."

Republican Senator Tom Coburn added, "Hard times require hard decisions, and what we're seeing here is the easy way out. The easy way out is not to pay for this."

The number of people poised to lose unemployment benefits is soaring, from 2 million in recent weeks to 2.5 million by the end of this week, according to Marisa DiNatale, a labor economist at Moody's Economy.com. That number is expected to hit 3.2 million people by the end of July, she said, citing Labor Department figures.

"It's extremely urgent. It has never been more of a problem," DiNatale said. The number of people out of work for longer than 27 weeks was a record 6.8 million in June, and the average duration of unemployment was a record 35.2 weeks.