WASHINGTON (AP) — Bipartisan Senate bargainers ended a long-running election-season standoff and struck a compromise renewing expired jobless benefits for five months for more than 2 million Americans who have been out of work the longest, the lawmakers said Thursday.

Approval of the $9.7 billion measure seemed likely by the Democratic-led Senate when it returns in late March from a weeklong recess. That would throw the issue into the Republican-run House, where its fate seemed uncertain.