WASHINGTON—Vice President Joe Biden said he's disappointed that a Republican lawmaker is keeping the Senate from voting on an extension of unemployment insurance.

"If he succeeds, one million people nationwide will be thrown off the unemployment rolls, one million people will be thrown into nothing but what I would call despair," Mr. Biden said Friday.

In a rare debate that lasted more than four hours late Thursday, Sen. Jim Bunning (R., Ky.) blocked several attempts by Democratic lawmakers to temporarily extend federal jobless benefits and health insurance subsidies. If the Senate doesn't act, the extension will expire on Sunday.

Mr. Bunning wants Congress to offset the $10 billion cost of the benefit extension by using unallocated funds from last year's $787 billion economic stimulus plan.

The Senate's assistant majority leader, Dick Durbin (D., Ill.), tried to pass the extensions on Friday morning, but Mr. Bunning again objected.

Mr. Biden criticized "the recalcitrance of a single senator," warning that "if we don't succeed in overcoming that objection, there's going to be immediate, immediate hurt on a lot of people."

Mr. Biden was speaking at a White House event, where he unveiled the annual report of the Middle Class Task Force that he leads.

The White House also announced proposed new regulations aimed at helping protect workers' retirement savings, an initiative spearheaded by the Middle Class Task Force.

The proposed new rules would shield workers from potential conflicts of interest related to financial advisers. Under the plan, retirement investment advisers and money managers may give investment advice only if they do not get a commission for steering workers into funds with which they are affiliated, or if their advice is based on an objective computer model certified to be unbiased by independent experts.

The rules will be available for public comment until May 5. The Department of Labor will then issue a final rule, which would apply to all financial institutions that both provide investment options such as 401(k)s to employers and offer financial advice to their employees.

Wall Street Journal - Politics

Write to Henry J. Pulizzi at henry.pulizzi@dowjones.com