House Democrats meet as leaders race to secure deal on Biden priorities
House Democrats huddled Friday morning as party leaders sprint to secure an intraparty deal they hope will convince progressives to support the infrastructure package.
The Friday morning caucus meeting follows a late night — Speaker Nancy Pelosi left the Capitol after midnight, the culmination of hours of scrambling to secure a deal with key Senate Democratic moderates Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.
Those talks, which also include Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the White House, already resumed in earnest Friday. White House officials met Thursday evening in Manchin’s office in the Capitol along with Sinema, but the West Virginia Democrat appeared unmoved after their meeting.
Those centrists want the bipartisan infrastructure bill to pass the House but are less keen on a sweeping spending package that could cost up to $3.5 trillion. House progressives, meanwhile, are threatening to tank the infrastructure legislation without certain guarantees on the multitrillion-dollar social safety net bill that would reform policies on child care, health care and climate change.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/house-democrats-meet-as-leaders-race-to-secure-deal-on-biden-priorities/ar-AAP2B9r
Capitol Hill set for another desperate push on Biden's agenda as leaders put a $2.1 trillion option on the table
There wasn't a vote. There wasn't a deal. But a $2.1 trillion compromise framework has been floated by Democratic leaders and the White House after an all-day sprint to bridge the gap between their party's opposing factions.
Despite an 11-hour scramble, Democratic leaders left the US Capitol Thursday night without a victory on a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that just months ago looked to be a sign President Joe Biden's legislative agenda was well on its way in his first year. Hours of feverish private meetings, calls and Zooms between Democratic leaders, their staff and White House officials sought to do what many, including those directly involved, thought impossible heading into Thursday: Bridge a gap that only seemed to grow deeper by the hour.
It was, in fact, impossible. A pledged vote was delayed. A clear framework for a deal wasn't secured. The path toward pulling Biden's agenda back from the brink still isn't clear. But the mood on both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue is more optimistic than it was 24 hours ago.
The agreement Democratic leaders and the White House are attempting to craft isn't meant to be a detailed provision-by-provision rundown of the final economic and climate package, but instead the general parameters that, possibly, could unlock progressive votes on the infrastructure measure.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/capitol-hill-set-for-another-desperate-push-on-bidens-agenda-as-leaders-put-a-dollar21-trillion-option-on-the-table/ar-AAP2d30
Fingers crossed.