The US Senate marked a surprise halt on Friday in the marathon vote on Joe Biden's nearly $ 1.9 trillion stimulus package, which Democrats hope to adopt in the coming days.
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Democrats have a very narrow majority in the upper house: 50 senators against 50 Republicans.
In the event of a tie, Vice-President Kamala Harris has a vote to decide the vote.
Their leader Chuck Schumer was convinced Thursday to count on all the votes of his group and therefore to be able to adopt
"this week"
the plan, which will then return to the House of Representatives, with a Democratic majority, for a final vote.
But a conservative Democratic senator, Joe Manchin, put a surprise stop to the examination of the text this Friday, signaling once again the immense power of the moderates in this Senate without a comfortable majority.
Democrats suddenly halted the vote on a First Amendment while they were negotiating with this senator from West Virginia, because they fear he will vote against one of their future amendments concerning unemployment benefits, the result of last-minute negotiations and supported by the White House.
At the same time, Republicans are trying to win Joe Manchin's support for their own unemployment amendment.
A rally that could derail the entire recovery plan, the result of a fragile compromise between moderate Democrats and progressives in Congress.
A hundred amendments
Even before this paralysis, the examination of the text, which began on Thursday, was already shaping up to be very long in the Senate.
Republicans began by demanding that its 628 pages be read in its entirety, which lasted nearly 11 hours.
Then Friday morning, the debates resumed with the prospect of a marathon vote, nicknamed "vote-a-rama", when each senator can propose amendments.
Republicans have promised to present a hundred but have the option to adjust their number during the debates.
It is therefore impossible to predict when the final vote will take place in the Senate.
In detail, the stimulus package presented to the Senate represents a cost of 1.862 billion dollars over ten years, according to the assessment of the budget services of Congress (CBO).
This is slightly less than the first version adopted in the House a week ago and which included the increase in the minimum wage.
The new bill before the Senate also reduces the number of Americans likely to receive a check of 1,400 dollars.
The text also includes 350 billion dollars in aid to states and local communities.