Senate resumes work on virus bill after jobless benefit deal

WASHINGTON >> Senate leaders and moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin struck a deal late Friday over emergency jobless benefits, breaking a nine-hour logjam that had stalled the party’s showpiece $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill.

The compromise, announced by the West Virginia lawmaker and a Democratic aide, seemed to clear the way for the Senate to begin a climactic, marathon series of votes expected to lead to approval of the sweeping legislation.

The overall bill, President Joe Biden’s top legislative priority, is aimed at battling the killer pandemic and nursing the staggered economy back to health. 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, help for schools and the airline industry and subsidies for health insurance.

While the Senate next faced votes on a pile of amendments that were likely to go overnight, Democratic leaders’ agreement with Manchin suggested it was just a matter of time until the chamber passes the bill. That would ship it back to the House, which was expected to give it final congressional approval and whisk it to Biden for his signature.

But the day’s lengthy standoff also underscored the headaches confronting party leaders over the next two years as they try moving their agenda through Congress with their slender majorities.

Manchin is probably the chamber’s most conservative Democrat, and a kingmaker in a 50-50 Senate that leaves his party without a vote to spare.

J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Congressional staffers wait in the ornate corridor outside the Senate chamber during a delay in work on the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, at the Capitol in Washington on Friday.