WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate leaders and moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin signed a deal Friday afternoon for emergency benefits for occupation, breaking a nine-hour logjam that had stopped the COVID-19 piece of law of $ 1.9 trillion.
The commitment, announced by West Virginia lawmaker and a Democratic aide, seemed to pave the way for the Senate to begin a series of climate and marathon votes that are expected to lead to the passage of general legislation.
The general bill, President Joe Biden’s top legislative priority, aims to fight the killer pandemic and restore the health of the tiered economy. It would provide direct payments of up to $ 1,400 to most Americans and money for COVID-19 vaccines and testing, aid to state and local governments, aid to schools and the airline industry, and health insurance grants.
While the Senate later faced votes on a stack of amendments that would likely pass overnight, the Democratic leaders’ deal with Manchin suggested it was only a matter of time before the House passed the project. This would send her back to the House, which was expected to give her final approval from Congress and take her to Biden for signature.
But the long confrontation of the day also highlighted the headaches that party leaders will face over the next two years as they try to move their agenda to Congress with their slender majorities.
Manchin is probably the most conservative Democrat in the House and a councilor in a 50-50-year-old Senate who leaves his party without a vote. With the Democrats ’meager majority (they only have 10 votes in the House), the party needs its vote but can’t lean too far toward the center without losing its progressive support.
With 10 million fewer jobs since the pandemic occurred a year ago, helping unemployed Americans is one of the top democratic priorities. But it is also an issue that generated a rift between progressives trying to help the unemployed constituents cope with the devastating economy and Manchin and other moderates who have sought to cut some of the bill’s costs.
“People in the country are hurting right now, with less than two weeks after reducing unemployment checks,” Biden told the White House, referring to the end of March 14 of the current round of benefits. unemployment urgency. He described his bill as a “rescue clearly needed to gain control” against the pandemic.
The package faces a solid Republican Party opposition wall, and Republicans used the impasse of unemployment to accuse Biden of refusing to seek a compromise with them.
“You could pick up the phone and end it right now,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, RS.C., said about Biden.
The House version of the relief bill provided weekly benefits of $ 400 for unemployment (in addition to the usual state payments) through August. Manchin hoped to reduce those costs, saying the pay level would deter people from going back to work.
When the day began, Democrats claimed they had reached a compromise between party moderates and progressives, extending jobless emergency benefits to $ 300 a week in early October. This plan, sponsored by Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., Also included tax cuts on some unemployment benefits.
But at noon, lawmakers said Manchin was willing to support a less generous Republican version. This led to hours of talks with White House aides, top Senate Democrats and Manchin, as the party tried to find a way to save the unemployment aid package.
The pledge announced Friday night would provide $ 300 a week, with the final check paid on Sept. 6, and includes the tax credit for those benefits.
Before the drama of unemployment benefits began, senators voted between 58 and 42 to kill a top progressive priority, a gradual increase in the current minimum hourly wage from $ 7.25 to $ 15 in five years.
Eight Democrats voted against the proposal, suggesting Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., And other progressives who promise to continue the effort in the coming months will face a tough fight.
But eight hours after that call for the minimum wage began, it had not yet formally closed, as all Senate work ceased as Democrats struggled to solve their unemployment benefit problem.
The next step would be a mountain of amendments, mostly from Republican Party opponents, virtually all destined to fail but designed to force Democrats to vote politically uncomfortable.
Republicans say the general bill is a liberal spending party that ignores the growing number of vaccinations and signs of a turbulent economy suggest that twin crises are easing.
“Our country is already poised for a strong recovery,” said Mitch McConnell, Senate minority leader R-Ky, citing in part an unexpectedly strong report on job creation. “Democrats inherited a tide that was already turning.”
Democrats reject this, citing the 10 million jobs the economy has lost during the pandemic and many people are still struggling to buy food and pay rent.
“If you just look at a large number, you say,‘ Oh, everything is getting a little better, ’” said Chuck Schumer, Senate Majority Leader, DN.Y. “It’s not for the lower half of America. It’s not. “
In an encouraging sign for Biden, a survey by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 70% of Americans supported his treatment of the pandemic, including a remarkable 44% of Republicans.
Friday’s blockade on unemployment benefits was not the first delay. On Thursday, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Forced chamber clerks to read aloud the entire 628-page relief law, a grueling task that lasted employees 10 hours and 44 minutes and ended shortly. after 2 a.m. EST.
Democrats made a number of other late changes to the bill, designed to restrict support. They ranged from extra money for food programs and federal health care grants for job-losing workers to funds for rural health care and the language that ensures minimum amounts of money for in the smaller states.
In another late negotiation that satisfied the moderates, Biden Democrats and the Senate agreed Wednesday that some higher-income earners would not be eligible for direct checks on people.