USA Today: “Anyone who thought his outsized influence in the evenly divided Senate was overstated needed only to see how the chamber came to a screeching halt when the West Virginia moderate raised questions about the size of unemployment benefits.”

“Manchin already effectively derailed one of Biden’s Cabinet nominees. And he showed his clout again during the debate of Bidens’ Covid-19 relief bill. After he objected to the $400-per-week payments, it was lowered to $300 following an hours-long delay where the senator was at the center of negotiations.”

CNN: How Democrats miscalculated Manchin and later won him back.

Politico: “Passage of the Covid aid bill validated an argument Schumer has made for more years now, that Democrats erred by trying to bring Republicans on board for a big relief plan during the last economic crisis in 2009. This time around, Republicans weren’t ‘even in the ballpark’ when they offered a $600 billion spending bill as a compromise, said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL).”

“So instead of searching for bipartisan support and potentially watering down a historic bill that beefs up pensions, health care and crucial unemployment benefits, Schumer rolled the dice on total party unity — and succeeded.”

Dan Balz: “President Biden and Democratic lawmakers will face many challenges this year as they attempt to dramatically redirect policy after four years of Donald Trump’s presidency. None will be as consequential for the future of elections and the shape of democracy as the coming battle in the Senate over a comprehensive election revision bill.”

“In its simplest description, the legislation is designed to make it easier for people to vote, make elections more transparent and shore up some of the infrastructure of election operations. Such a description, however, belies the breadth of what is included in the nearly 800-page bill, which carries the biggest proposed changes for elections in decades.”

NBC News: Democrats confront a harsh political choice: Save the filibuster or pass Biden’s agenda.

“The Senate passed President Joe Biden’s nearly $2 trillion coronavirus relief package Saturday morning after a grueling overnight session, delivering on the White House’s first major legislative priority,” Politico reports.

“The 50-49 vote, entirely along party lines, came after the Senate remained in session for more than 24 hours of marathon votes. Senate Republicans sought to amend the legislation but Senate Democrats largely stuck together to defeat any major changes to the bill — one of the largest federal aid packages in history.”

Washington Post: What’s in the bill?

Jeff Greenfield: With no votes to spare, Biden gets a win Obama and Clinton would have envied.

“Senators worked throughout the night Friday into Saturday as the chamber considered various amendments to the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, with a final vote expected later in the day,” The Hill reports.

“The chamber is holding a marathon voting session known as a vote-a-rama, where any senator can force a vote on potential changes to the mammoth relief package. Democrats have rejected a series of proposed GOP changes to the bill.”

“Senate Democratic leaders reached an agreement over unemployment benefits with moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) late Friday, ending a nine-hour stand-off that threatened to derail action on President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill,” the Washington Post reports.

“The agreement would extend the existing $300 weekly unemployment benefit through Sept. 6, as well as provide tax relief on benefits for households making under $150,000.”

New York Times: “The agreement came after a nine-hour impasse that paralyzed efforts to move Mr. Biden’s stimulus bill through the Senate, after Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia raised concerns that an overly generous benefit could discourage people from returning to work.”

“By late Friday, Democrats had reached a compromise that appeared to satisfy Mr. Manchin.”

Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) has had to leave Washington in the middle of the pandemic relief bill debate because of a family issue, Punchbowl News reports.

Sullivan’s absence means that Republicans will have one less vote as they try to advance amendments to the bill.

Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) announced her support for eliminating the Senate filibuster.

Said Smith: “I’ve made up my mind. We need to move this country forward, and that’s why I’ve decided to come out in support of eliminating the filibuster.”

“I was one of the worst waiters in the history of the country but I was a waiter.”

— Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), quoted by the Washington Post, on raising the tipped minimum wage.

“Pressure is building on President Biden, a longtime backer of traditional Washington rules, to do away with the filibuster and other procedures, as Democrats press him to seize what could be a fleeting moment of power to enact a progressive agenda,” the Washington Post reports.

“Democrats increasingly worry that popular pieces of Biden’s agenda will hit a wall in the Senate, including his plans for climate change, immigration, gun control, voting rights and LGBT protections. Failing to enact them, they fear, could be a political disaster for Democrats as well as a substantive one.”

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) forced Senate clerks last night to read the entire pandemic relief bill over more than 10 hours, yet he wasn’t there to object this morning when Democrats reduced debate on the bill from to just three hours instead of 20.

So the bill Johnson tried to slow is now moving even faster to passage.

Washington Post: “Murkowski was the only Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to approve Haaland (D-NM) in the narrow 11-to-9 vote. Haaland’s nomination now moves to the full Senate, where the entire Democratic caucus and two Republicans, Murkowski and Susan Collins (Maine), are expected to back her, cementing her confirmation.”

“The committee vote could easily have been a tie that would have complicated Haaland’s nomination. Her opposition to new leases for drilling oil and gas on federal land made her a target for Republicans on the committee.”

“Senators vanished from the U.S. Senate chamber on Thursday as clerks begin reading the upper house’s 628-page coronavirus relief bill, with Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), who objected to waiving its reading as a way to delay the process, chatting and looking at his phone during parts of the reading,” Forbes reports.

The Hill: Ron Johnson grinds Senate to halt, irritating many.

“Senate Republicans are leaning on Lisa Murkowski to reject President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic relief plan, hoping they can get unanimous GOP opposition and prevent Democrats from claiming the bill is bipartisan,” Politico reports.

“Murkowski is unique, however, and so is her home of Alaska. The state is suffering economically, the pandemic has exacerbated the state’s woes, and she’s complained repeatedly that Biden’s less fossil fuel-friendly energy policies are hurting Alaskans. Moreover, her state changed its primary system recently to dilute the possibility of a conservative or Trump-inspired challenger, giving her room to legislate from the middle.”

“Neanderthals are hunter-gatherers, they’re protectors of their family, they are resilient, they’re resourceful, they tend to their own. So, I think Joe Biden needs to rethink what he is saying.”

— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), on Fox Business, on President Joe Biden’s criticism of the governors of Texas and Mississippi.

It’s not clear why she’s speaking in the present tense.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) will slow down the confirmation of Merrick Garland to lead the Department of Justice, Politico reports.

“The hold that Cotton has placed on Garland’s nomination means that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will need to clear a procedural hurdle before a final confirmation vote. Democrats had hoped that Republicans would agree to skip that step, particularly given that several of them — including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell — plan to support the nominee.”

“But with Cotton blocking an agreement and the Senate’s focus on passing Biden’s coronavirus relief package, a final confirmation vote on Garland is expected to occur next week at the earliest.”