Manchin’s Mindset
Manchin on Thursday said that a reconciliation bill is inevitable, but he indicated he can’t support one as big as the $6 trillion that Senate Budget Chair Bernie Sanders has said he’ll draft.
“I don’t think we can take much more debt,” Manchin said.
The reconciliation bill is expected to address Biden’s campaign promises to expand federal support for child care, access to community college and elderly care—issues the president called “human infrastructure.” To try to appease progressives, Biden promised not to sign either bill alone.
“I’m not going to rest until both get to my desk,” he added.
Climate advocates, unions and progressive groups are closely tracking the reconciliation bill to ensure their priorities are addressed. Within the bipartisan deal, there is money for electric vehicle chargers, electric school buses, pollution cleanup and replacement of lead water pipes—but for the left-most wing of the Democratic party, that isn’t enough.
Election Concerns
“Regardless of how bipartisan legislation develops, we cannot throw priorities like climate, prescription drugs and tax fairness overboard,” Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden said on a Thursday call with reporters.
Democratic lawmakers are under pressure to pass all of the major pieces of legislation by early fall, before members of Congress shift their focus to the 2022 midterm elections. The Biden White House views the number of jobs created by any infrastructure deal as a major part of its economic message to voters.
A senior White House official said the infrastructure spending will add to the country’s economic growth, while creating good, union-paying jobs. The official declined to specify the number of jobs the infrastructure deal will create, though a White House statement said it would be in the “millions.”
The infrastructure deal came together from a 10-member bipartisan group of senators, who agreed to a framework late Wednesday night following days of negotiations with Biden’s top aides including Ricchetti, National Economic Council Director Brian Deese and the head of White House legislative affairs Louisa Terrell.
White House aides viewed the proposal favorably and told Senate negotiators Wednesday evening Biden was likely to support it.
Less than 12 hours later, after a brief meeting with some of the senators, Biden emerged from the White House, flanked by lawmakers, to announce they had reached a deal.
A previous attempt at a bipartisan compromise, led by GOP Senator Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, collapsed after the White House and Republicans could not agree on the best pay to pay for any deal. One lawmaker said those talks helped to establish some red lines in the negotiations, such as not changing the 2017 Republican tax-cut bill and defining infrastructure in a traditional, physical-project sense.
—With assistance from Erik Wasson, Steven T. Dennis, Jennifer Jacobs and Laura Litvan.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.