President Joe Biden emphasized his $ 1.9 billion coronavirus stimulus bill $ 1400 payments at a White House meeting during a White House meeting, while senators worked Saturday to pass a bill after a ten-hour delay accept to resolve a dispute.
Senate Republics have already planned to postpone a final vote on the bill for as long as possible by proposing dozens of amendments, but the Democrats were the ones responsible for the first time they supported U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, DW , wanted to ensure. .Va., To extend unemployment insurance benefits.
Manchin finally agreed to support the $ 300-a-week benefit extension through Sept. 6, down from $ 400 in the home account, and to forgive federal income taxes up to $ 10,200 unemployment insurance payments for those under $ 150,000 earn.
“We have reached a compromise that will allow the economy to bounce back quickly, but also protect those who receive unemployment benefits by next year with an unexpected tax bill,” Manchin said in a statement after reaching the agreement. .
Biden quickly jumps on board.
“This agreement enables us to continue on the much-needed US rescue plan, with $ 1,400 aid tests, funding we need to end vaccine vaccinations, open our schools, help those suffering from the pandemic. , and more, “White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement.
The compromise paved the way for voting on the stimulus package to start again, with the course on the right track likely to succeed later on Saturday.
Democrats spent hours accepting an alternative that was acceptable to Manchin so he would not give the decisive vote on an amendment by U.S. Senator Rob Portman, R-Ohio, to reduce payments from $ 400 to $ 300. reduce and cut it in mid-July, while taxing all unemployment benefits.
While Manchin did cross party lines to support Portman’s proposal and make it 50-49, the Democratic compromise would replace it. New Jersey’s Democratic U.S. senators, Cory Booker and Robert Menendez, both voted no.
Republicans continued to insist that higher unemployment benefits encourage employees to stay home. But studies by the JPMorgan Chase & Co. Institute, economist Ernie Tedeschi and Yale University all felt that people would rather return to work, a conclusion also supported by Neel Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
Before the stalemate began, the Senate rejected an amendment by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., To restore the federal minimum wage of $ 15 that Congresswoman Elizabeth MacDonough obtained from the bill. The legislation is considered under a procedure known as conciliation, which is allowed by a majority vote, but limits what provisions can be included in the legislation.
The amendment failed, 58-42. Booker and Menendez support the wage increase.
“If a senator thinks this is the last time they are going to vote on whether or not to raise 32 million Americans, they are making a serious mistake,” Sanders said after the vote. “We are going to keep discussing it, and we will do it, because that is what the American people are demanding and need.”
Although the Senate Democrats tried to ensure that they had the support of all 50 of their lawmakers, Biden passed the stimulus checks to a paratransit worker, a veteran and a volunteer at the health center, who joined him around a table. joined the White House, focused.
At the beginning of the meeting, he spoke to reporters and said the money would make a big difference in terms of their lives. ‘
“It will provide immediate relief for millions of people who will be able to use it in a very constructive way and also grow the economy,” he said.
The law includes $ 1,400 payments to those earning up to $ 75,000, eliminating them completely for those earning more than $ 80,000, and $ 2,800 payments to couples earning up to $ 150,000, ending with those earning more than $ Earn 160,000.
The thresholds are less than the $ 100,000 and $ 200,000 savings in the House bill, and the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy, a progressive research group, said lower income limits would mean 400,000 less New Jersey residents would get stimulus tests.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said in his speech Friday that even with lower income limits, “the vast majority of Americans will get the full $ 1,400 we asked for,” with legislation that “directly checks U.S. workers and families struggle with the cost of groceries, medicine and rent. ”
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Supporters and opponents of the stimulus bill seized from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics also reported Friday that 375,000 new jobs were created last month.
Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky praised a report on the work that shattered expectations and nearly doubled job growth experts, ‘while protesting on the Senate floor against the stimulus bill.
But Psaki said the economy has continued to decline 9.5 million jobs since the pandemic began a year ago.
“This is a bigger job than at any point in the Great Recession,” Psaki said at her daily press conference. “At this rate this month, it will take more than two years to reach the pre-pandemic level of employment, and it will take even longer at the average rate over the past three months.”
Studies by S&P Global and the Brookings Institution said spending $ 1.9 billion would bring the economy back to what it was before the pandemic later this year. And Moody’s Analytics said the plan would help 7.5 million jobs this year and another 2.5 million next year.
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Jonathan D. Salant can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @JDSalant.