参议院民主党人在1.9万亿美元的冠状病毒救助立法的马拉松式投票会议上最初遇到障碍后，就失业福利达成了协议。民主党人乔·曼钦威胁要破坏关于如何处理一揽子失业救济的协议，但经过八个小时的讨论，他同意了一项新的提议。

民主党人周五公布了他们认为是由参议员汤姆·卡珀(Tom Carper)发起的失业保险协议。这将把每周失业救济金从众议院法案的400美元拨款削减到300美元，同时允许救济金持续到9月份，而不是8月份。该协议还包括通过失业计划支付的第一笔10，200美元免税。

但一直敦促他的同事和白宫进一步瞄准该法案的曼钦并没有接受卡珀的提议。

双方最终同意将增强用户界面计划延长至9月6日，每周300美元。众议院通过的法案截止到8月29日。

白宫新闻秘书珍·普萨基在一份关于乔·拜登总统支持的声明中说:“总统支持妥协协议，并感谢所有为达成这一结果而努力工作的参议员。”“它将补充失业救济金延长至9月，并帮助绝大多数失业保险领取者避免意外的税单。最重要的是，这项协议使我们能够推进迫切需要的美国救援计划，有1400美元的救济支票，我们需要的资金来完成疫苗的推出，开放我们的学校，帮助那些遭受大流行的人，等等。”

约书亚·罗伯茨/路透社

参议院能源和自然资源委员会主席乔·曼钦在听证会上发言

参议院少数党党鞭约翰·图恩(John Thune)在达成协议前告诉记者，他认为民主党人正在幕后努力，让他们的成员在一些修正案上团结一致。

“我只是认为民主党现在有点左右为难，”图恩说。“他们基本上停止了在会场上的行动，这样他们就可以试图说服他们的所有成员在其中一些投票上保持一致。我认为他们害怕自己会输给波特曼。”

参议院目前在民主党和共和党之间平分秋色。为了让拜登的标志性立法成为法律，民主党人不能在整体投票中失去曼钦或他们核心小组的任何其他成员。如果曼钦在削减失业救济金上与共和党人投票，就有可能颠覆进步人士对整个法案的支持。

平衡法案已经要求政府做出其他让步。

拜登和参议院民主党人周三达成协议，降低谁将获得部分直接付款的收入门槛。收入低于75，000美元的个人和收入低于150，000美元的夫妇仍将获得全额直接付款，但部分付款的上限分别为80，000美元和160，000美元。

该协议吸引了曼钦和其他温和的民主党人，他们希望看到直接付款只给予受影响最严重的家庭和个人。

如果民主党人真的团结一致，共和党人最终也无法阻止该法案的通过。但这并不能阻止他们提出一系列法案修正案，希望推迟最终投票。

汤姆·威廉姆斯/CQ-通过盖蒂影像公司点名

参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默在参议院辩论验尸官时走出会议厅

根据会员的积极性，这个过程很容易延续到周六早上甚至更晚。

少数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔(Mitch McConnell)周五上午表示，他的成员有“许多改进法案的想法”。

麦康奈尔说:“我们将对各种修正案进行表决，希望其中一些想法能够成为最终产品。”。

由于威斯康辛州参议员罗恩·约翰逊(Ron Johnson)要求允许在会场上阅读整个600页的法案，这一进程已经停滞了几个小时。完成这个过程花了10多个小时。

周五上午，在修正案开始之前，参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默(Chuck Schumer)为一个漫长的夜晚做好了准备，但他表示，参议院“无论花多长时间”都将坚持下去。

今天下午审议的第一项修正案来自参议员伯尼·桑德斯，他的提议将最低工资提高到每小时15美元。

众议院通过的法案版本包括了同样的提议，但在参议院议员将其排除在外后，它被从参议院法案中删除。

“让我们说清楚。这是世界历史上最富有的国家，”桑德斯说。“我们再也不能容忍数百万工人无法养家糊口，因为他们在为饥饿的工资而工作。”

桑德斯修正案失败了，因为八名民主党人和他们的共和党同事一起扼杀了这项努力。桑德斯说，他将继续争取加薪。

在这个过程结束之前，还会有更多的修改。

Democrats reach agreement on unemployment benefits after COVID relief bill hit early snag

Senate Democrats have come to an agreement on unemployment benefits after initially hitting a snag early in the marathon voting session on the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief legislation. Democrat Joe Manchin had threatened to unravel an agreement on how to handle jobless benefits in the package, but after eight hours of discussions has agreed to a new proposal.

Democrats on Friday unveiled what they thought was an agreement on unemployment insurance, sponsored by Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., that would cut the weekly jobless benefit from the $400 allotment in the House bill to $300, while allowing the benefit to continue through September rather than through August. The agreement also included the first $10,200 paid out through the unemployment program being untaxed.

But Manchin, who has been urging his colleagues and the White House to further target the bill, wasn't sold on the Carper proposal.

The two sides finally agreed to extend the enhanced UI program through Sept. 6 at $300 per week. The House-passed bill was through Aug. 29.

"The President supports the compromise agreement, and is grateful to all the Senators who worked so hard to reach this outcome," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement, of President Joe Biden's support. "It extends supplemental unemployment benefit into September, and helps the vast majority of unemployment insurance recipients avoid unanticipated tax bills. Most importantly, this agreement allows us to move forward on the urgently needed American Rescue Plan, with $1400 relief checks, funding we need to finish the vaccine rollout, open our schools, help those suffering from the pandemic, and more."

Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters prior to the agreement he believed Democrats were working behind the scenes to keep their members united on some amendments.

"I just think that the Democrats right now are in a bit of a quandary," Thune said. "They've essentially stopped action on the floor so that they can try and persuade, I think, all their members to stay together on some of these votes. And I think they're afraid that they that they could lose on Portman."

The Senate is currently evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. To get Biden's signature piece of legislation passed into law, Democrats cannot afford to lose Manchin, or any other member of their caucus, on the overall vote. And if Manchin votes with Republicans on reducing the unemployment benefit, it risks upending support from progressives on the overall bill.

The balancing act has already required the administration to make other concessions.

Biden and Senate Democrats cut a deal Wednesday to lower the income threshold for who will receive partial direct payments. Individuals making under $75,000 and couples making under $150,000 will still receive a full direct payment, but partial payments will cap off at $80,000 and $160,000 respectively.

That deal appealed to Manchin and other moderate Democrats who hoped to see the direct payments given only to the most adversely impacted families and individuals.

If Democrats do manage to hang together, there is little Republicans can ultimately do to prevent the bill from passing. But that won't stop them from offering a laundry list of amendments to the bill in hopes of delaying a final vote.

The process could easily stretch into the morning hours of Saturday and beyond, depending on how motivated members are.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has repeatedly coined the relief bill a "liberal wish list" said Friday morning that his members have "many ideas to improve the bill."

"We are about to vote on all kinds of amendments in hopes that some of these ideas make it into the final product," McConnell said.

Already, the process was stalled for several hours because of a request from Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., that the entirety of the 600-page bill be read allowed on the floor. It took over 10 hours to complete the process.

Before the amendment process commenced Friday morning, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer set the stage for a long night but said the Senate will remain at it "no matter how long it takes."

The first amendment considered this afternoon came from Sen. Bernie Sanders, whose proposal would have raised the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

The House-passed version of the bill included the same proposal, but it was struck from the Senate bill after the senate parliamentarian ruled it out of bounds.

"Let’s be clear. This is the richest country in the history of the world," Sanders said. "We can no longer tolerate millions of our workers being unable to feed their families because they are working for starvation wages."

The Sanders amendment failed when eight Democrats joined with their Republican colleagues to kill the effort. Sanders said he'll continue fighting for a wage hike.

Many more amendments will be offered before the process concludes.