The Senate unexpectedly interrupted President Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion COVID-19 bill on Friday after Senator Joe Manchin (D-WVa) exerted his inordinate influence in a debate over unemployment insurance.
Manchin supports lowering a weekly federal supplement to $ 300, down from $ 400 in the house-approved version of the bill. But there are dueling proposals to have the supplement expire in July or September.
The issue derailed the Senate’s plans to start a ‘vote-a-rama’ early Friday afternoon on amendments to the bill and raised doubts about plans for a weekend vote on the final wording of the package, which is expected with little no Republicans will be hired. to vote.
Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah) told reporters on Capitol Hill that Democrats must make concessions to Manchin if they want to keep the unemployment benefit in September rather than July, as Republicans propose.
The answer is, if they need Joe, give him what he needs. And then at that moment they say, “Maybe Speaker Pelosi won’t take the bill.” Well, that’s bullshit, ”Romney told reporters.
The massive package can pass the Senate by a bare majority under special budget reconciliation rules, but the Democrats cannot afford to lose a single vote in the equally divided chamber.
The amount and duration of the unemployment benefit came up as a late point of contention. A supplement approved in December – $ 300 per week – expires this month.
Senator Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) office said he planned to hold an afternoon press conference on “Senate Democrats postponing votes because Senator Joe Manchin (West Virginia) is trying to get someone receiving unemployment benefits to stop. deserves someone who gets up and goes to work. “
Congress approved a $ 600 weekly replenishment as part of the CARES Act in March 2020 to ensure that an increase in the number of unemployed Americans would make about the same amount of money if they were temporarily out of work.
But as the pandemic spread, many conservatives said that providing too much money would be an incentive not to work, because in some states the total amount of unemployment benefits would exceed pre-pandemic wages.
The Senate version of the bill has already undergone major changes. Biden signed a steeper phase of $ 1,400 incentive vouchers this week, meaning people making more than $ 80,000 a year won’t see a dime, less than a $ 100,000 cap in the House version. There is an additional $ 1,400 check for each dependent child.
The Senate MP also dropped some provisions Republicans and some centrist Democrats opposed, including a $ 15 federal minimum wage and $ 140 million for a railroad project near House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s California district.
The bill includes $ 350 billion in state and local aid and $ 75 billion for vaccination, testing, and other pandemic medical supplies.
Republicans largely say the bill is unnecessary and wasteful, stressing that much of the money won’t be spent until the pandemic is over. The bill includes $ 129 billion for elementary schools, but the Congressional Budget Office estimates that about 95 percent will not be spent by 2021 because the funds approved for schools last year were not spent.
For parents, the bill allows an annual tax credit of $ 3,600 per child under the age of 6 and $ 3,000 per child under the age of 17. Those funds are also being phased out for earners over $ 75,000 or joint filers over $ 150,000. A family of four earning less than $ 150,000 could pull more than $ 14,000 off the bill, according to an analysis by CNBC.