Biden meets with Democrats as $3.5T plan faces party split
WASHINGTON — Time growing shorter, President Joe Biden launched meetings Wednesday with House and Senate Democrats as Congress worked to bridge party divisions over his big “build back better” agenda ahead of crucial voting deadlines.
The back-to-back afternoon sessions at the White House come at a pivotal juncture for Biden’s $3.5 trillion package as lawmakers struggle to draft the ambitious effort. With Republicans solidly opposed, Democratic leaders are counting on the president to galvanize consensus between progressives and centrists in their party.
Biden first conferred with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, while the White House’s communications team headed to Capitol Hill to huddle with other House Democrats.
“We’re in good shape,” Pelosi told reporters back at the Capitol after the hour-plus meeting.
The White House’s intense focus on Biden’s expansive domestic proposal showcases how much is at stake politically for the president and his party in Congress. The administration has suffered setbacks elsewhere, notably with the Afghanistan withdrawal and prolonged COVID-19 crisis, and Democrats are running short of time, anxious to make good on campaign promises.
Meanwhile, the House and Senate are at a standstill over a separate package to keep the government funded past the Sept. 30 fiscal yearend and to suspend the federal debt limit to avert a shutdown and a devastating U.S. default on payments.
As for Biden’s build-back plans, the House faces a deadline Monday to vote on the first part of Biden’s plan — a nearly $1 trillion public works measure that was already approved by the Senate but has become tangled in disputes over the broader package.
Centrist Democrats support the slimmer bill but have raised concerns about the price tag of Biden’s broader vision — which entails revamping federal taxes and spending to make what the president views as overdue investments in health care, family services and efforts to fight climate change.
The $3.5 trillion package would impose tax hikes on corporations and wealthy
Americans earning beyond $400,000 a year and plow that money back into federal programs for young and old, along with investments to tackle climate change.
House Speaker Pelosi has promised centrists a vote on the more modest $1 trillion public works package. That bill of roads, broadband and public water projects enjoys bipartisan Senate support and should easily pass the House even with growing House Republican opposition, but has become sidelined by the bigger debate.
“I’m confident we’ll have the votes,” said Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., a leader of the centrist coalition who was attending a later White House meeting.
But progressive lawmakers view the public works bill as inadequate and plan to vote against it unless it is considered alongside the bigger Biden package. Some 50 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus plan to vote against the bipartisan measure.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, DWash., chairwoman of the progressive caucus, emerged from an hour-long meeting with Pelosi late Tuesday saying its position had not changed and the two bills must move “in tandem” to win the progressive votes. Jayapal also will attend the meeting with Biden.
Publicly, the White House has remained confident both bills will pass, and Democratic leaders are pushing ahead as they draft the details.