WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate leaders and moderate Democratic Senator Joe Manchin signed a deal on unemployment emergencies late Friday, breaking a nine-hour logjam that is the party’s flagship $ 1.9 trillion COVID-19 emergency response. bill had been brought to a halt.
The compromise, announced by the West Virginia legislature and a Democratic assistant, appeared to pave the way for the Senate to begin a climactic, marathon series of votes expected to lead to the sweeping legislation being passed.
The general bill, President Joe Biden’s highest legislative priority, aims to combat the deadly pandemic and restore the staggered economy. It would provide direct payments of up to $ 1,400 to most Americans and money for COVID-19 vaccines and tests, aid to state and local governments, aid for schools and the airline industry, and health insurance grants.
While the Senate then got votes on a pile of amendments likely to be passed overnight, the Democratic leaders’ agreement with Manchin suggested that it was only a matter of time before the chamber passed the bill. That would send it back to the House, which it expected to give final approval from Congress and take it to Biden for his signature.
But the long stalemate of the day also underscored the headaches facing party leaders over the next two years as they try to push their agenda through Congress with their tiny majorities.
Manchin is probably the most conservative Democrat in the room, and a king in a 50-50 senate who leaves his party without a vote. With the narrow majority of Democrats – they only have a 10-vote lead in the House – the party needs its vote, but cannot tilt it too far to the center without losing progressive support.
With 10 million fewer jobs since the pandemic hit a year ago, helping unemployed Americans is a top Democratic priority. But it’s also an issue that created a rift between progressives who wanted to help unemployed voters cope with the bleak economy, and Manchin and other moderates who wanted to cut some of the costs.
“People in the country are in pain right now, with less than two weeks after the improved unemployment controls lowered,” Biden said at the White House, referring to the end of March 14 of the current round of emergency unemployment benefits. He called his bill a “clearly necessary lifeline to gain the upper hand” against the pandemic.
The package faces a solid wall of GOP opposition, and Republicans used the unemployment impasse to accuse Biden of his refusal to seek compromise with them.
“You can answer the phone and end this now,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, RS.C., of Biden.
The House version of the Emergency Relief Act yielded $ 400 a week in unemployment benefits through August – on top of regular state payments. Manchin hoped to cut those costs, claiming that that level would discourage people from returning to work.
At the start of the day, Democrats claimed they had reached a compromise between party moderates and progressives, extending unemployment benefits from $ 300 a week to early October until early October. That plan, sponsored by Senator Tom Carper, D-Del., Also included tax cuts on some unemployment benefits.
But by noon, lawmakers said Manchin was ready to support a less generous Republican version. That led to hours of talks with White House aides, top Senate Democrats and Manchin as the party tried to find a way to save its unemployment package.
The compromise announced Friday night would net $ 300 a week, with the final check paid on Sept. 6, including the tax break on those benefits.
Before the unemployment benefit drama began, senators voted 58-42 to cut a progressive top priority, a gradual increase in the current minimum wage from $ 7.25 to $ 15 over five years.
Eight Democrats voted against the proposal, suggesting that Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., And other progressives who promise to continue the efforts in the coming months will face a tough fight.
But eight hours after that minimum wage began, it still had not formally ended, as all Senate work ceased as Democrats struggled to solve their unemployment benefits problem.
The next step would be a mountain of amendments, mostly by GOP opponents, pretty much all destined to fail, but designed to force Democrats to take politically awkward votes.
Republicans say the general bill is a liberal spending party that ignores the growing number of vaccinations and signs of a booming economy suggest the twin crises are on the wane.
“Our country is already poised for a resounding recovery,” said Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Senate Minority Leader, referring in part to an unexpectedly strong job creation report. “Democrats inherited a tide that was already turning.”
Democrats reject that, citing the 10 million jobs the economy lost during the pandemic and countless people still struggling to buy food and pay rent.
“If you just look at a lot of them, you say, ‘Oh, everything is getting a little bit better,’” said Senate leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y. ‘It’s not for the bottom half of America. It’s not. “
In an encouraging sign for Biden, a poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 70% of Americans support his approach to the pandemic, including a remarkable 44% of Republicans.
Friday’s stalemate on unemployment benefit stalemate was not the first delay. On Thursday, Senator Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Forced the chamber clerks to read aloud the full 628-page waiver bill, a tiring task that took staff 10 hours and 44 minutes and ended shortly after 2 a.m. EST.
Democrats have made a host of other late changes to the bill intended to stifle support. They ranged from extra money for food programs and federal health care grants for workers who lose their jobs to rural health care funds and language that insured minimum amounts for smaller states.
In another late deal that appeased moderates, Biden and Senate Democrats agreed on Wednesday to exclude some higher-income earners from the direct checks to individuals.