US Senate extends $300 weekly unemployment benefit in Biden’s COVID stimulus bill
The Senate amended President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus bill to include a $300 weekly federal unemployment benefit through August.
Senate Finance Chair, Ron Wyden, D-Ore., introduced the amendment, which passed early Saturday Morning 50-49.
The change is an adjustment to the legislation passed in the House, which sought to increase the benefits to $400 a week.
The Senate also passed a Republican proposal to the unemployment benefit Saturday morning. Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman’s amendment would have extended the $300 benefit through mid-July – a tweak anathema to progressives, who had pushed for more generous unemployment benefits. That also passed 50-49, and was superseded by the amendment agreed to by Democrats.
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