WASHINGTON – To the list of bitter year-end fights in Congress, add an emergency jobless benefits program that is set to expire three days after Christmas.

With 1.3 million Americans at risk of losing the long-term benefits in several weeks, Democrats are hoping to pressure Republicans into renewing the compensation program, which was put in place in mid-2008 amid the worst U.S. recession since the Great Depression.

Republicans, noting that the program has already cost $265 billion, say that after five and a half years, the economy has improved and the time has come for the federal backstop to end.