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WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate leaders and moderate Democratic Senator Joe Manchin struck a deal Friday night on jobless emergency allowances, breaking a deadlock that had stalled the party’s $ 1.9 trillion relief bill of COVID-19 dollars.
The compromise, announced by the West Virginia lawmaker and a Democratic aide, appeared to pave the way for the Senate to begin a series of landmark votes and marathon and, ultimately, the approval of sweeping legislation.
The comprehensive bill, President Joe Biden’s top legislative priority, aims to tackle the deadly pandemic and restore the health of 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 to schools and the airline industry and subsidies for health insurance.
The Senate was then faced with votes on a stack of amendments that would likely last overnight, mostly on Republican proposals all but doomed but designed to force Democrats to vote politically awkward.
More importantly, the jobless benefits agreement suggested it was only a matter of time before the Senate passed the bill. That would send him back to the House, which was to give him final congressional approval and bring him back to Biden for his signature.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden supported the jobless payments compromise.
The day’s long standoff highlighted the headaches facing party leaders over the next two years – and tensions between progressives and centrists – as they attempt to push their agenda forward through Congress with their meager majorities.
Manchin is arguably the most conservative Democrat in the chamber and a 50-50 Senate kingmaker. But the party cannot bow too far from the center to win Manchin’s vote without endangering progressive support in the House, where it has only a 10-vote advantage.
Helping unemployed Americans is a top democratic priority. But it’s also an issue that is creating a wedge between progressives who seek to help jobless voters cope with the dismal economy and Manchin and other moderates who have wanted to cut some of the costs off the bill.
Biden noted Friday’s employment report showing employers added 379,000 workers – a surprisingly strong performance. This is still little compared to the 10 million fewer jobs since the pandemic struck a year ago.
“Without a bailout, these gains will slow down,” Biden said. “We cannot afford one step forward and two steps back. We must defeat the virus, provide essential relief and build an inclusive recovery. ”
The comprehensive bill faces a solid wall from GOP opposition, and Republicans have used the unemployment standoff to accuse Biden of refusing to seek a compromise with them.
“You can pick up the phone and end this right now,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, RS.C., said of Biden.
But 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 handling of the pandemic, including 44% Republicans.
The House approved a relief bill last weekend that included $ 400 in weekly unemployment benefits – in addition to regular state payments – through August. Manchin hoped to reduce those costs, saying the level of payment would discourage people from returning to work, a reason most Democrats and many economists reject.
At the start of the day, Democrats claimed they had reached a compromise between moderates and progressives in the party extending jobless emergency benefits to $ 300 a week until early October.
This plan, sponsored by Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., Also included tax cuts on certain unemployment benefits. Without it, many Americans abruptly kicked out of their jobs would face unexpected tax bills.
But at noon, lawmakers said Manchin was ready to back a less generous Republican version. This led to hours of talks involving aides from the White House, Senate Democrats and the Manchins as the party struggled to find a way to salvage its unemployment aid program.
The compromise announced Friday night would provide $ 300 per week, with the last check paid on September 6, and includes the benefit tax break.
Before the unemployment benefit drama began, senators voted 58-42 to eliminate a top progressive priority, a gradual increase in the current minimum hourly wage from $ 7.25 to $ 15 over five years.
Eight Democrats voted against the proposal, suggesting that Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., And other progressives vowing to continue the effort in the months to come will face an uphill battle.
That vote began shortly after 11 a.m. EST and was not officially closed until almost 12 hours later, as Senate work came to a halt amid negotiations over unemployment benefits.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell chided Democrats, calling their one-day effort to craft the unemployment amendment a “show”.
“What this proves is that bipartisanship has advantages when you are dealing with a problem of this magnitude,” McConnell said.
Republicans have criticized the Comprehensive Relief Bill as a liberal spending holiday that ignores rising immunizations and signs of a shifting economy suggest the two crises are easing.
“Democrats inherited a tide that was already turning.” McConnell said.
Democrats reject this, citing job losses and many people still struggling to buy food and pay rent.
“If you just look at a lot of it, you say, ‘Oh, it’s a little better,’ said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y. “It’s not for the lower half of America. It’s not.”
Friday’s deadlock on unemployment benefits was not the first delay in the relief program. On Thursday, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, forced House clerks to read aloud the entire 628-page relief bill, a grueling task that took employees 10 hours and 44 minutes and ended shortly after 2 a.m. EST.
Democrats made a host of other late changes to the bill designed to gain support. They ranged from extra money for food programs and federal subsidies for health care for workers who lose their jobs to funds for rural health care and language ensuring minimum amounts of money for them. small states.
In another late deal that has satisfied moderates, Biden and Senate Democrats agreed on Wednesday to make some higher earners ineligible for direct checks to individuals.
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Associated Press editor Kevin Freking contributed to this report.
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