Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Senate Reaches Unemployment Deal despite Manchin's Resistance


Sat 06 Mar 2021 | 08:28 AM
Taarek Refaat

Senate announced on Friday night a deal on unemployment benefits, which would facilitate approval of President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion relief bill, after nearly nine hours of delay in the wake of Senator Joe Manchin's resistance.

Manchin resisted an earlier agreement put forward by the Democrats to address the unemployment benefits bill, however, party leaders announced a new deal with the influential Democrat.

The deal would provide $300 per week in additional unemployment compensation through September 6, in addition to $10,200 in tax credit for the unemployed. Manchin led the opposition to a $15 minimum wage even as his party pressed for it.

Earlier, he suggested that by June or July, the economy should open up as vaccines spread, concerned about paying an additional $1,000 a month for people to stay home.

"We want people to get back to work. We will struggle to get people ready to keep the economy going," he said on Tuesday, adding that It would be horrible to open the doors and find nobody working.