Dems look to trim jobless aid to keep relief bill alive
WASHINGTON » Senate Democrats on Friday worked to scale back the $400-a-week unemployment payments in President Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan, seeking to placate a crucial moderate in their own party who was threatening to defect and derail the new administration’s first major legislative initiative.
The dispute over the amount and duration of federal aid to millions of Americans who have lost jobs during the pandemic appeared to erupt largely because of Sen. Joe Manchin’s concern that an overly generous benefit could keep people from returning to work.
Seeking to keep the support of both the moderate and liberal wings of their party, Democratic leaders and Biden had agreed to reduce the benefits to $300 a week but allow them to continue for an extra month, into early October.
They also proposed to make a large portion of last year’s unemployment benefits tax-free.
But before the compromise was to reach the Senate floor for a vote, Manchin, D-W.Va., appeared to signal he was not sold on it. The impasse halted the stimulus measure in its tracks just as the chamber had begun a marathon series of votes on an array of proposals to change the bill. It reflected the strength of a small group of moderates who are crucial swing votes, and the
difficulty of governing in a 50-50 Senate, where Democrats cannot afford to lose a single vote.
“No comments, no comments, no comments,” Manchin said to reporters chasing him through the Capitol as he became the subject of an intense bipartisan lobbying campaign. He did acknowledge “good negotiations” were occurring.
It was an awkward episode for Democratic leaders, who had been confidently predicting that the jobless aid deal they had worked out — with Biden’s blessing — would keep them unified and allow them to march forward, beating back Republican efforts to throw the bill off track.
“The Senate is going to take a lot of votes, but we are going to power through and finish this bill, however long it takes,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. and the majority leader, vowed before the trouble began.
It was the second time in a week that leading Democrats, with the backing of the White House, had bowed to the wishes of moderates in their party in an effort to keep the sweeping stimulus measure on track. On Wednesday, they agreed to trim eligibility for another round of stimulus checks.
Still, the Senate fell into a period of paralysis Friday, with a vote on an unrelated proposal to add a minimum-wage increase to the stimulus measure languishing for more than eight hours as Democrats stalled for time to iron out an agreement on the unemployment payments.
Hanging in the balance was Biden’s pandemic aid measure, one of the largest federal rescue bills of its kind, which would provide funding for vaccine distribution and schools, relief for small businesses and help for struggling Americans, including direct payments and the jobless aid.
Racing to have the bill signed into law before unemployment benefits begin to lapse March 14, Democrats are using a fasttrack budget process, known as reconciliation, to protect it from filibusters and push it through on a simple majority vote. With each party controlling 50 seats in the Senate, Democrats have only a one-vote margin thanks to Vice President Kamala Harris’ power to break ties.
Democrats have already modified their proposal substantially to win over the centrists in their ranks. On Wednesday, they agreed to lower the income cap that determines who can receive a stimulus payment to $80,000 for individuals, $120,000 for single parents and $160,000 for households. Biden had proposed caps $20,000 higher.
The measure would send $1,400 checks to Americans earning $75,000 or less — or $112,500 for single parents and $150,000 for couples — with the stimulus payments falling gradually for those with incomes above those thresholds and disappearing altogether for those earning more than the income cap.
The proposed changes to the stimulus payments and jobless aid were two more blows to the hopes of progressive Democrats who had already been angry at the decision to omit a minimum-wage increase from the bill, after a top Senate official ruled it out of bounds based on the rules that govern reconciliation bills.
Liberal lawmakers and activists had argued that Democrats should overrule the official who issued the decision, the Senate parliamentarian, and push through the proposal anyway over Republican opposition. But Biden made clear he would not support that move, and Friday, when Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., tried to add it to the legislation, the wage increase did not appear to come close to mustering a majority, and it was poised to fall far short of the 60 votes that it would have needed to be adopted.
With the vote still pending after more than eight hours Friday because of the impasse over the jobless aid, the measure to increase the minimum wage to $15 by 2025 had attracted only 42 supporters — and 58 opponents.
“If anybody thinks that we’re giving up on this issue, they are sorely mistaken,” Sanders told reporters. “If we have to vote on it time and time again, we will — and we’re going to succeed.”