Manchin told colleagues that he knew nothing about this tax provision. However, Democratic leaders thought Manchin was on board, as his ordinary senators had contacted him and reported to the party chiefs that he was with them. They told the White House that things were going well.
However, Manchin was not on board, making it clear that he would not be pressured by his party leaders to accept something he did not like, according to sources who spoke, stressing the power of an individual senator to derail the new president’s agenda in the 50-50 Senate.
Asked why the Democratic leaders’ dispute with Manchin was not resolved ahead of time, Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan said on Saturday: “We think so.”
The resulting confusion and chaos – and the lack of communication between Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and his most important deciding vote – put Washington on edge, threatened to explode a delicately negotiated compromise, and forced Democrats to leave an open vote for longer than any other in modern history – almost 12 hours – as they engaged in a furious campaign of lobbying and negotiations to bring Manchin on board.
In particular, about half a dozen Democratic senators were engaged in constant discussions with Manchin, hoping to find a way to win him back – all while Ohio Republican Senator Rob Portman spoke to Manchin several times an hour about his own alternative to Manchin. supported but that Democratic leaders wanted to defeat.
“I was trying to be the rye catcher. I was trying to keep him talking to the leadership,” said Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine who said he was talking to Manchin “constantly” on Friday. “My goal was to keep you talking and not to let you fall apart.”
For Biden, however, the approach resulted in a smooth sale. He was deliberately careful not to add pressure to the situation, instead choosing to make room for Manchin and listen to his concerns, said a source with knowledge of the discussion. But Biden underscored a comprehensive point: how crucial it was to reach an agreement to get the project to the finish line, given the urgency of the current economic and public health crisis. Manchin, two sources said, was urged by the president to do what he felt was right – in essence, to vote for his conscience.
It was a reflection of a relationship that several sources said had been in a solid place since Biden took office – Manchin of the mind that Biden is an honest broker and Biden aware of the fact that Manchin is his own senator and does not gently assume being arrested.
Manchin, who characterized his Friday conversation with Biden as “good”, said on Saturday that the talks “took longer than they should have”. But he added: “We managed and closed a better deal.”
“Let’s just say we had a few projects that lasted 12 hours,” said Dick Durbin, the majority in the Senate. “It took a little longer than we thought.
Manchin privately signed the GOP plan
Days earlier, Manchin had pledged his support for an alternative Portman plan, which he proposed to extend unemployment benefits to $ 300 a week through July, reducing the benefit by $ 100 in the bill passed by the House.
But Democrats, fearful that Portman’s plan would pass, worked in secret behind the scenes to move forward with their own proposal to stop Portman’s plan. The new Democratic plan would also reduce benefits to $ 300, but extend them until September. And to avoid the left’s reaction by simply reducing the benefits, they added a sweetener: ensuring that the first $ 10,200 was not taxed.
By mid-Friday morning, Democratic leaders were feeling confident about where they were going. They believed that Manchin had approved the proposal, after his talks with a voting colleague, Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Delaware Senator Tom Carper, the plan’s main sponsor. But Manchin said Friday morning that he was unaware of the tax clause.
“I never heard anything about it. This is the first time I heard about it that morning. I said, ‘Wait a minute,'” Manchin told reporters on Saturday about the mood.
And he openly told his colleagues on Friday that he would not vote in favor of the plan unless there were changes, which led to a day-long lobbying effort and left many of his colleagues baffled.
Asked by CNN why he did not resolve his differences with Manchin at the front end, Schumer suggested that he was surprised by the reaction of his West Virginia colleague.
“People have new differences all the time,” said Schumer on Saturday after the project was approved. He added: “Those eight hours don’t mean anything compared to the relief that the American people will have. And if it helped us get to that, great.”
The failure to resolve their differences at the front end surprised many Democrats because the two men have a straightforward relationship.
“I really love all of my caucuses,” said Schumer. Even Manchin? “Yes. Certainly,” said the New York Democrat.
But many were nervous that the whole effort would fail.
On Friday, while Schumer, Carper and others struggled to fix the Manchin problem, Carper sat alone on a couch in the private Senate lobby. He was bent over with his head almost between his knees and a phone pressed to his ear. He seemed both sad about what was going on and intending to fix it. He later told a Republican colleague that things were looking bad.
“We are under arrest,” Carper told Cornyn in the Senate halls.
“It was frustrating,” said Stabenow when asked about the nearly 12 hours that the Senate was at an impasse. “We were trying to find a way forward, which we did. I always thought it was possible. I always thought we would do it.”
Horse riding throughout the day and arm twists
Manchin and Democratic leaders frantically exchanged proposals, said several sources familiar with the talks. Manchin, according to a source familiar with the matter, wanted the amendment to be split in two so that the Senate could vote separately on the $ 300 weekly unemployment insurance and the tax-free component.
Without the two items packaged together, however, Democratic leaders knew that the tax-free play would fail. The leadership tried to impress Manchin several times that what the West Virginia senator was asking for would not pass the House, where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had her own narrow margin and a group of progressives was already upset because the $ 15 minimum wage had been withdrawn from the Senate bill.
“It was pretty clear that there was a lot of pressure,” said South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the second Republican. “In a situation with narrow margins in the Senate, every man is a king and every woman is a queen.”
The White House was involved and consulted at all times, with officials working on the numbers of the various proposals that were negotiated back and forth, officials said. But they were also aware that this was an issue being negotiated by leading Senate Democrats – and made a point of being available, but not arrogant, officials said. Biden was available, but he would end up making only one call to Manchin. He did, however, keep in touch with Schumer the entire time.
A senior administration official specifically pointed out Carper and Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon, Jon Tester of Montana and Mark Warner of Virginia, along with Schumer, as individuals who “deserve a great deal of credit” for working on the final deal.
The White House’s main focus during the negotiating hours was to ensure that any deal did not change the overall outline of the rescue plan, the official said. That baseline, which was the driving force behind the creation of the plan itself, was to ensure that aid “goes to the people who really need help and be realistic about how long it will take for the economy to recover,” said the official.
The final deal with Manchin, White House officials determined, would still achieve those goals. Biden agreed.
“The end result is essentially the same and therefore I don’t think that any of the commitments fundamentally changed the essence of what I put in the bill in the first place,” Biden told reporters on Saturday after the vote.
Ultimately, they all signed a plan to limit the eligibility of the non-taxable component to families with an annual income below $ 150,000 and extend the $ 300 in weekly benefits until September 6.
After the deal was closed, the senators were ready to vote. But it was only an hour before midnight when the Senate would begin to vote seriously on the flurry of amendments that Republicans proposed, forcing senators to stop all night while Democrats rejected Republican Party calls to postpone until Saturday morning.
Senator Jim Inhofe, an 86-year-old Oklahoma Republican who told CNN he suffered a concussion last week after falling on the ice, said he stayed up all night until the final vote to approve the bill shortly after noon collapsed. But it was not easy.
“It was a very difficult night,” said Inhofe of his concussion.
On Saturday, while awaiting the start of the final vote on approval, Manchin went to Portman’s table and the two talked for several minutes in a very friendly and lively way.
When Manchin was about to leave, they gave Covid-inspired little hug, pushing their shoulders together, and Portman quickly put his arm around Manchin’s back.
Asked about the exchange later, Portman said: “We have to continue to work together and I am grateful that he has kept his word and kept my proposal, although he has been strongly persuaded not to do so. I looked at him a point, as there is 12 hours ago and said, ‘Joe, your arm looks kind of mutilated. Was it sprained?’ ”