In Washington:

• The Senate approved a budget resolution early Friday morning to eventually serve as a vehicle for the next coronavirus relief package. Vice President Harris broke a 50-50 party-line tie vote to pass the resolution. The House approved the resolution later Friday. The resolution’s adoption kicks off the reconciliation process, which can pass the Senate with a simple majority, bypassing a possible GOP filibuster. “Hopefully in a two-week period of time we’ll send something over to the Senate,” Pelosi said outside the White House meeting with other Democratic leaders and President Biden.

• The U.S. added 49,000 jobs in January and the unemployment rate fell slightly to 6.3 percent, a 0.4 percentage point drop, according to data released Friday by the Labor Department. January’s numbers fell well below the consensus expectations of economists, who projected a gain of 100,000 jobs but also an unchanged jobless rate. Solid hiring increases in the professional services and education fields were offset by large losses in leisure and hospitality, retail, health care, and transportation and warehousing, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

• President Joe Biden in a Friday press conference, said his plan was the “answer to the crisis we are in.” He also said,“ I just don’t have the conscience,” to agree to a smaller bill explaining that Americans are hurting and losing hope; they do not just need jobs, but also food and rent money. He expressed the desire to work with Republicans but said he doesn’t think they are willing to go as far as he thinks is needed and refuses to drag out the suffering when compromise will not meet the needs of the crisis. Biden prioritized vaccines being administered as the most critical need, but also the need for food and nutrition programs. He said he will keep the $1400 direct payment and will refuse to cut the size. Biden emphasized that his plan has better economics, addresses immediate and long-term health by creating more jobs, growth, and making the U.S. more competitive than any other plan.

• The Pentagon has authorized more than 1,000 active-duty service members to help the Federal Emergency Management Agency with its vaccination effort against COVID-19, according to a Defense Department fact sheet released Friday. White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients called the effort a “critical part of our all of government response.” The teams are expected to arrive at the sites in the next 10 days.
• The House Transportation Committee held a hearing on the pandemic's impacts on the transportation sector Thursday. President Trump's mask mandate was praised and well-received, but there are still questions on the issue of who enforces the mandate. Chairman Pete Defazio (D-OR) said that he plans to ask the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to take the lead in enforcing the mandate in airports. Bus drivers have also become targets to being attacked by riders for trying to enforce the rules. The president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA strongly opposed preflight testing mandates for domestic travel, saying it would be "cosmetic," difficult to run effectively, and singles out airlines when other businesses and transit companies would not be required to do so. Doing so would be "devastating" to the industry. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association said the trucking industry has been hurt by several congressional actions, including increasing insurance requirements and failing to pass a safe truck parking bill. They called for suspending the federal diesel tax or heavy vehicle use tax to help truckers survive the COVID rather than just praising them on social media as "heroes."
• President Joe Biden expressed doubt that his proposal to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour would be included in a final COVID-19 relief package. In an interview excerpt with CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell, Biden predicted Senate rules would prevent the increase from going forward. “My guess is it will not be in it,” he said. “I don’t think it is going to survive." Biden still advocated that the country needs a $15 minimum and would like to see it stand alone. If not included, this would stave off the inevitable fight that was sure to occur between Democrats that support and oppose its inclusion in the bill.
• The White House said it will use the Defense Production Act to make more Covid-19 tests and vaccines more available to Americans in the coming months. The Act gives the president broad authority to direct private companies to prioritize government contracts and allocate resources. The U.S. government will be supporting six additional companies to surge at-home COVID-19 test supplies to more than 60 million by the end of summer, the White House COVID-19 Response Team announced Friday.
• The House Education and Labor Committee will vote next week on new COVID relief for schools and colleges as Democrats charge ahead on drafting parts of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion economic rescue package. Chairman Bobby Scott (D-VA) has scheduled a markup on the legislation for Tuesday, Feb. 9, at 2 p.m. Scott expects the committee will approve an education relief proposal that will be roughly in line with Biden’s request for $170 billion.

In the News:

• Long-term unemployment is nearing its highest point since the Great Recession, fueled by the pandemic-caused recession. Almost 40 percent of jobless workers in January were long-term unemployed, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Workers are “long-term unemployed” when their jobless spell is longer than six months. In April 2010 nearly 46 percent of the unemployed were out of work long-term. The dynamic makes finding a new job more difficult, scars workers’ long-term earnings potential, and raises the odds of losing a job (if they find one) down the road, economists say.

• The National Football League is making all 32 of its stadiums available as mass coronavirus vaccinations sites. Currently, seven NFL teams are hosting vaccinations for COVID-19 at or near their stadiums. “The NFL and our 32 member clubs are committed to doing our part to ensure that vaccines are as widely available in our communities as possible,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wrote in a letter Thursday to Biden. His letter said that each National Football League team would coordinate with local, state and federal health officials on the vaccination efforts at the stadiums.
• With millions of older American not being online, state and local health departments have been struggling to get seniors signed up for vaccines or processing them through local health departments portals. Currently, 42 percent of the nation's over-65 population lack broadband access at home.