Senate Democrat’s push to pass President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill stalled out on Friday, leaving party leaders scrambling to ensure that they’d have the votes needed for passage. The uncertainty centered on whether Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), a key centrist, would support a last-minute Democratic agreement to change to the enhanced unemployment benefits provided in the bill or would instead back a Republican alternative.
The question led to an hours-long delay that left the fate of the entire package in doubt, raising questions about Democrats’ ability to enact legislation in an evenly divided Senate and with the party split between moderates and progressives.
The unemployment insurance question: Democrats reportedly had reached a deal Friday to scale back the supplemental federal unemployment payments provided by the aid package in response to concerns from moderates. Under the deal, the extra weekly payments would be lowered from $400 back to their current $300, but the benefit would be extended by a month, until the end of September. That amendment, offered by Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), would also make $10,200 in unemployment insurance exempt from taxes to prevent jobless workers from getting hit with an unexpected year-end tax bill.
The White House backed the deal, but it quickly became apparent that the agreement was in peril, resulting in a prolonged delay in the Senate’s consideration of amendments to the Covid package while Democrats tried to resolve the standoff.
Manchin had expressed concerns that the unemployment benefits might deter jobless people from going back to work at a time when the economic recovery is poised to take off, and he reportedly was troubled by the tax exemption in the Democratic amendment. As a result, he was considering supporting a competing amendment from Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) that would both cut the unemployment benefit to $300 and have it expire on July 18, earlier than the original end-of-August cutoff. Portman’s amendment also wouldn’t provide the tax exemption. Republicans say it would trim $128 billion from the overall cost of the package.
Roll Call reports that some business groups backed the Portman amendment, with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Federation of Independent Business both saying that they would make it a “key vote” on their annual scorecard.
"There's bipartisan support for what Rob's trying to do. And Manchin's getting beat up by his side. They're trying to get him in line, so to speak. And he's trying to do the right thing," said Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD). "He knows that the Portman amendment saves a lot of money and is better policy. But Democrats in his caucus obviously don’t want to give Republicans a bipartisan win on this."