Seven Senate Democrats and one independent, joined Republicans on Friday to defeat the inclusion of Bernie Sanders’ $15 an hour minimum wage amendment in the $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill. The Democrats were Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, Jon Tester of Montana, Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, and Chris Coons and Tom Carper of Delaware. Independent Senator Angus King also voted against including the wage increase in the Covid relief bill. According to The Hill, “the overwhelming vote [of 58 to 42] raises doubts whether Biden will be able to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 at any point in his first term.” To add insult to injury, the defeat of the wage raise came just after conservative Democrats won a 25% reduction in unemployment benefits from $400 a week to only $300 a week. The U.S. Senate is expected to debate the bill Friday and earlier Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed there would be a vote this week. But Republican Senators used every procedural trick in the book to delay debate including Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson who demanded that the 628-page bill be read into the record – a feat that took the better part of a day. Senator Sanders slammed Johnson’s theatrics saying sarcastically, “Good thing we have time during a national emergency to do this.” As the clerk began reading the bill at Johnson’s demand, he and most other Senators left the room. A vote is now expected over the weekend. Senator Sanders on Friday reminded his colleagues of the importance of the bill.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly report on the state of the U.S. economy shows that the nation added 379,000 new jobs in February, a rosier-than-expected number. But digging into the details showed that while overall hiring rose, Black unemployment also rose. The New York Times explained that, “Unemployment among Black workers climbed to 9.9 percent from 9.2 percent in January. In contrast, joblessness for white workers ticked down to 5.6 percent from 5.7 percent in January, and those for workers who identify as either Hispanic or Asian also fell.” The Economic Policy Institute analyzed the report and found that more than 25 million workers have been harmed by the dire state of the economy during the pandemic. The EPI concluded that, “Congress must pass the full $1.9 trillion relief package immediately.”

In other news, the FBI has arrested a man named Federico Klein in connection to the January 6th Capitol riot. Klein is the first person who was directly appointed to a government position by Donald Trump to be arrested for his role in the riot. Klein had worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign and was a State Department aide through January 6th until Trump’s White House departure. According to Politico, “Klein is charged with several felonies, including assault on police officers, interfering with police during civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding,