Editor’s note: Sen. Lisa Murkowski, in her 18th year in the U.S. Senate, is emerging as a powerful figure, whose Senate role in bridging the gap with the new president-elect Biden will be vital for Alaska’s survival in the rough years ahead. In this USA Today story, Alaskans get a glimpse of how she is at the center of the Senate power structure that hammered out a compromise on the $900 million relief package.
By USA TODAY
The deal aimed at helping Americans weather the fallout from COVID-19’s relentless winter was hatched at a small gathering fueled by pasta.
In late November, Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski hosted a dinner at her home that included Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine; Mark Warner, D-Va.; Mitt Romney, R-Utah; and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. The senators began hammering out a broad legislative outline, including stimulus checks, extended unemployment benefits and a fresh lifeline for small businesses.
The $900 billion deal broke an eight-month stalemate in which talks got going in fits and starts only to give way to more gridlock.
The pressure for legislation mounted as case counts surged, death tolls climbed, and Americans felt another round of economic pain as restaurants closed, airlines laid off employees and shops scaled back.
Post-election negotiations over pasta
The first signs of progress emerged after the Nov. 3 election.
Manchin said he had called Collins to congratulate her on her reelection and kept talking to other senators who also felt they needed to act on stimulus, leading up to a dinner at Murkowski’s house on Nov. 17.
The lawmakers ate takeout pasta as they discussed the package, Manchin said, and at the end of the meal, Warner, one of the richest members of the Senate, picked up the tab.
