The Senate passed Biden's $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill

Millions of Americans will start running out of pandemic unemployment benefits on March 14, putting increased pressure on the Senate to quickly pass its version of President Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package to extend those programs.

The jobless payments are among the first federal lifelines from December's $900 billion stimulus package set to expire, with additional provisions for expanded paid sick and family leave, small businesses, food stamps, housing protections and other relief lapsing in the following weeks and months.

Out-of-work Americans will get their last $300 federal weekly boost to jobless payments on March 14. And those in two key pandemic unemployment assistance will start running out of benefits at that time.

Some 4 million people in the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation programs will see their benefits expire in mid-March, while the payments of another 7.3 million folks will lapse over the following four weeks, according to a recent report from The Century Foundation.

The two temporary federal programs were created in Congress' $2 trillion relief package last March and were extended by 11 weeks in the $900 billion relief deal passed in December.

The former provides benefits to freelancers, gig workers, independent contractors and certain people affected by the pandemic, while the latter lengthens the duration of payments for those in the traditional state unemployment system.

Read more here.

Sen. Dan Sullivan left Washington, DC, for Alaska on Friday due to the passing of his father-in-law, adding to the challenges facing the GOP in trying to delay and amend the Covid-19 relief bill championed by the White House.

"Due to the recent passing of his father-in-law, Senator Sullivan had to depart on a Friday afternoon flight to make it back to Fairbanks, Alaska in time for the funeral," according to a statement from his office. 

The statement added that "Senator Sullivan intended to vote against final passage of the bill and made his opposition clear in a statement on Thursday, after his vote against the motion to proceed with consideration of the bill." 

Before leaving, Sullivan did vote Friday against the minimum wage amendment put forward by Sen. Bernie Sanders. 

The Senate is currently in a marathon voting session on a series of amendments to President Biden's $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill – also known as a vote-a-rama.

It's a Senate tradition that the minority party uses to put members of the majority on the record on controversial issues in an effort to make changes to a bill that they oppose.

Republicans are using the process to put Democrats in a tough position to not just stay united, but also consistent about the stimulus package.

Usually, lawmakers agree to a process that looks a lot like this:

However in this instance, Sen. Ron Johnson, a Republican from Wisconsin, took steps to stretch out the timeline for Biden's bill by forcing a full reading of the bill on Thursday.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called out Johnson in a floor speech Thursday, saying, "We all know this will merely delay the inevitable."

Biden's stance

CNN reported that the President made an aggressive pitch to Democrats for his relief plan earlier this week, telling them during a virtual meeting that they all need to accept some provisions they might not like but also must demonstrate to the American people they are responding to the devastating public health and economic crises.

What happened overnight

Senate Republicans introduced a number of amendments overnight that were narrowly defeated by the Democratic majority. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine pushed to replace Biden's bill with a $650 billion version. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida wanted to tie school funding to reopening requirements. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina advocated for greater transparency for state nursing home investigations.

But the GOP amendments failed, along with one by Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester to require Biden to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, which he recently blocked.

Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, brought the Senate to a standstill on Friday over a policy dispute that threatened to upend President Biden's top agenda item — the $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill. It prompted a furious lobbying effort behind the scenes after Democrats thought they had party unity.

Manchin was the only Democratic senator who did not sign off on the jobless benefits deal at the beginning of the day. Instead, he signaled support for an alternative, less generous proposal put forward by Republican Sen. Rob Portman.

After a long negotiation, and with a flurry of other amendments to consider, Manchin finally agreed to extend $300 weekly unemployment benefits through Sept. 6, about a month earlier than what Democrats had envisioned. The West Virginia Democrat also limited a provision to make the first $10,200 in benefits nontaxable apply only to households making less than $150,000.

The gavel finally went down on the first amendment vote of the Senate vote-a-rama, 11 hours and 50 minutes after it began, making it the longest roll call vote in recent Senate history.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer just spoke briefly on the Senate floor to ask members to stay near the floor because he believes they have about 14 amendments to go.

Schumer asked that lawmakers stay close so they can try and vote for these in 10-minute increments. Schumer also predicted a few could pass by voice vote, meaning there wouldn’t have to be a recorded vote.

Amendment votes are the last major hurdle senators face before voting on the massive pandemic relief bill.

The Senate is voting into Saturday morning on a series of amendments to the $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill, following a nearly 12-hour struggle to get one Democrat to support the party's plan to extend unemployment benefits.

Here's a recap of what happened so far:

Now what?

The Senate will pass the bill after voting on a series of amendments, a process known as vote-a-rama, which could end as soon as this morning. But given the changes made to the plan, it will have to go back to the House for a final vote before being sent to Biden's desk for his signature.