Jockeying over jobless benefits slows relief bill
WASHINGTON — Senate leaders and moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin struck a deal late Friday over emergency jobless benefits, breaking a ninehour logjam that had stalled the party’s showpiece $1.9 trillion COVID19 relief bill.
The compromise, announced by the West Virginia lawmaker, appeared 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 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 COVID19 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 run deep into the night, the deal 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, a kingmaker in a 5050 Senate that leaves his party without a vote to spare. With Democrats’ slim majorities — they have a mere 10vote House edge — the party needs his vote but can’t tilt too far center without losing progressive support.
With 10 million fewer jobs since the pandemic struck a year ago, aiding unemployed Americans is a top Democratic priority. But it’s also an issue that drove a divide between progressives seeking to help jobless constituents cope with the bleak economy and Manchin and other moderates who have wanted to trim some of the bill’s costs.
The House version of the relief bill provided $400 weekly jobless benefits — on top of regular state payments — through August. Manchin was hoping to reduce those costs, asserting that level of payment would discourage people from returning to work.
The compromise announced Friday night would provide $300 weekly, with the final check paid on Sept. 6, and includes a tax break on those benefits.
Before the unemployment benefits drama began, senators voted 5842 to kill a top progressive priority, a gradual increase in the current $7.25 hourly minimum wage to $15 over five years.