ELEVEN HOURS LATER: The Senate has yet to call the minimum wage vote as Democrats ready their new jobless benefit amendment for prime time.

The chamber is mostly empty.
And 11 hours and 50 minutes later, the Senate finishes the vote on the first amendment to the Covid relief bill.

"Voting will resume shortly," @SenSchumer says. "Now that this agreement has reached we are going to power through the rest of this process and get this bill done."
McConnell mocks Democrats for their internal divisions that forced this delay. "What this proves is there are benefits to bipartisanship," he says. As majority leader, McConnell pursued partisan votes (unsuccessfully) for ACA repeal and (successfully) on a major tax overhaul.
McConnell calls for the Senate to adjourn until 10 am tomorrow. The chamber is voting on it now.
And the Senate votes 50-49 to reject McConnell's motion to adjourn the chamber.

They're gonna go all night.
How one Senate Dem aide expects this to play out:

Portman is offering his amendment to slash jobless benefits and it will PASS.

Then Dems will pass the deal they cut with Manchin to supersede that amendment.

(Again, per this source.)

A way to maneuver around this landmine.
Joe Manchin has voted for Portman's amendment so it is indeed on track to pass.
Sinema, on the other hand, is voting with Dems to kill the Portman amendment that curtails jobless benefits.
50-49, Portman amendment passes.

Coming up: The Senate will effectively cancel it out.

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More from @sahilkapur

6 Mar
BREAKING: Senate votes 50-49 to pass President Biden's $1.9 trillion Covid relief package.

Every Democrat votes YES, every Republican votes NO.
The one absence in the Covid relief vote is Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), who left town for a family emergency, per his office.
SENATE PASSES THE COVID RELIEF BILL

It includes:

—$1,400 stimulus checks
—$300-a-week jobless benefits
—Child allowance up to $3,600
—$350 billion state/local aid
—$34 billion for ACA subsidies
—$14 billion vaccine distribution
—100% COBRA subsidies

nbcnews.com/politics/congr…
Read 5 tweets
6 Mar
LATEST: Senate Democrats blazed through a series of overnight votes after resolving an internal clash over jobless benefits that threatened to derail the bill.

They voted down lots of GOP amendments with everyone aboard.

Final passage is getting closer.

nbcnews.com/politics/congr…
The Senate is killing Republican amendment after Republican amendment on a vote of 50-49, with Joe Manchin sticking with the blue team.

The ideological gap between the most conservative Democrat and the most liberal Republican is massive.
(Dan Sullivan had to leave town due to a family emergency, so Republicans have 49 votes in this vote-a-rama.)
Read 10 tweets
5 Mar
NOW: @BernieSanders is introducing an amendment to raise the minimum wage to $15/hour in the Covid relief bill.

It doesn't have 50 votes at this stage and it's subject to being removed under reconciliation rules. But it looks like he intends to put every senator on the record.
Bernie Sanders, making the case for a $15 minimum wage, argues that some Americans are "giving up on democracy and moving toward authoritarianism" out of desperation, because the government keeps passing economic policies that ignore their needs and makes rich people richer.
"I think the parliamentarian was dead wrong," @BernieSanders says of the minimum wage ruling, decrying the "absurd process that we allow an unelected staffer" in the Senate to decide "whether 30 million Americans get a pay raise or not."
Read 7 tweets
3 Mar
NEW: Senate will narrow eligibility for stimulus checks under a deal between moderate Dems and Biden.

Singles under $75K get the full $1,400. But it zeroes out at $80K (not $100K).

Couples under $150K get full amount. But zeroes out at $160K (not $200K). nbcnews.com/politics/congr…
That’s according to two sources familiar with the Senate Democrats’ new plan. It keeps the $1,400 topline number for checks, per Biden’s promise, but phases them out much faster above the $75K/$150K incomes.

w/ @frankthorp @GarrettHaake 👇

nbcnews.com/politics/congr…
This means Biden will send checks to fewer people than Trump did (but with more cash for many).

Some Democrats had argued against this, warning it'd lead to some seriously angry people who got money before and didn't expect to be excluded this round.

nbcnews.com/politics/congr…
Read 4 tweets
3 Mar
NEW —> Democrats confront a harsh political choice: Save the filibuster or pass Biden's agenda

Covid aid is on track to pass. But many of his other big plans are headed for a fatal crash with the 60-vote rule.

Progressives are agitating to destroy it.

nbcnews.com/politics/congr…
Warren on the filibuster: “The piece in front of us right now is the minimum wage. The piece that's coming up is the Voting Rights Act. And the piece after that is immigration reform. And another piece is universal child care. The infrastructure package.” nbcnews.com/politics/congr…
Biden’s filibuster position hasn’t changed, per White House official who points me to broad support for his nominations as sign of cooperation.

Some Dems say his overtures will only waste time as Rs run Obama-era playbook of unifying to weaken the prez. nbcnews.com/politics/congr…
Read 6 tweets
1 Mar
.@RoKhanna + 22 House Dems call on White House to ignore the parliamentarian and allow a $15 wage in the Covid bill.

A Senate expert tells me @VP has the power do this—and it'd take 60 votes to overrule her—but that it's never been done on Byrd rule.

WH has rejected this call. ImageImage
What @RoKhanna et al. are calling for is @VP to *ignore* the parliamentarian by issuing a ruling that the $15 wage complies. The parl. is an adviser and has no power to rule; the presiding officer rules and VP can preside. Hence this scenario doesn’t require a vote to *overrule.*
In any event, the other problem for Democrats pushing a $15 wage end-run around the parliamentarian is that even if they clear the rules hurdle, they lack 50 Senate votes for the policy.
Read 4 tweets

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