US: Democrats say they've reached agreement on the economic package

Senate Democrats have reached an accord on eleventh-hour changes to their top-priority economic legislation, they announced late Thursday, clearing a major hurdle to moving the measure through the chamber in coming days.

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., a centrist who was seen as the pivotal vote, said in a statement that she had agreed to changes in the measure's tax and energy provisions and was ready to move forward on the bill.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said lawmakers had achieved a compromise that I believe will receive the support of all Democrats in the chamber.

His party needs unanimity to move the measure through the 50-50 Senate, along with Vice President Kamala Harris' tie-breaking vote.

The election-year bill, housing President Joe Biden's and congressional Democrats' top priorities, would provide hundreds of billions in spending and tax credits to spur clean energy, reinforce fossil fuels and renew government support for people buying private health insurance.

It would raise revenue with tax boosts, beefed up IRS tax collections and curbs on drug prices, which would save money for the government and patients.

We prioritise the middle class and working families, instead of those at the very top. God bless them, they're doing fine, Schumer said.

Democrats need to nail down support from all their lawmakers to prevail in the 50-50 Senate and avoid a glaring self-inflicted defeat, similar to one they suffered last November on a far larger version of the package.

Republicans are on track to oppose the legislation as one, saying its tax boosts and spending would worsen inflation and damage the economy.

What do Democrats want to do with all the money they want to drain out of Americans' pockets in the midst of a recession? said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

They want to lavish hundreds of billions of dollars on an issue that exactly 3 per cent of the country says is our biggest problem: far-left environmental and climate spending."

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., a mercurial centrist, has not made her stance clear and is considered her party's sole potential holdout.

She's among a group of Western senators seeking to add around USD 5 billion to the legislation billed as Congress' biggest-ever climate change measure to help their states cope with epic drought and wildfires. The effort was described by a Democrat familiar with the talks who would speak only on condition of anonymity.

Sinema has also expressed interest in reshaping the measure's 15 per cent minimum tax on some companies with income exceeding USD 1 billion, said another Democrat who was not authorized to describe the senator's view publicly. They provided no detail. The proposed tax would raise an estimated USD 313 billion over a decade, the legislation's largest revenue raiser.

In defence of that proposal, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., released figures showing that between 100 to 125 corporations that reported income averaging USD 8.9 billion paid effective tax rates averaging 1.1 per cent. The numbers were compiled by Congress' nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation.

Sinema has been a critic of another proposal to raise taxes on executives of hedge funds and other private equity firms. It would raise USD 13 billion, a small portion of the bill, and is a favourite of progressives and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., a conservative Democrat who helped write the overall legislation with Schumer.

The Senate won't be in session Friday as Democrats continue their talks. That pause will also provide time for the Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, to decide if any of the bill's provisions violate the chamber's rules and should be removed.

Republicans want to kill as much of the bill as possible, either with MacDonough's rulings or with nonstop votes expected to last well into Sunday or beyond.

Even if GOP amendments are defeated, they will consider it mission accomplished if they force Democrats to take risky, campaign season votes on touchy issues like taxes, inflation and immigration.

Vice President Kamala Harris can vote to break a 50-50 tie and approve the bill.