White House Holds More Meetings With Democrats on Budget

President Biden and his team are expected to continue negotiating with Democrats on Thursday as they race to overcome entrenched divisions over his multi-trillion-dollar domestic policy agenda.

Although the White House has not yet identified the participants, officials stated that they would discuss the progress of both a $1 billion bipartisan infrastructure bill, and a second $3.5 trillion domestic plan.

The party leaders hope to reach a compromise on domestic policy by Monday, when the vote on the infrastructure measure is scheduled. An already fractured caucus will need to make difficult choices about how to pay it, what programs to include, and how much.

Thursday’s talks at the White House come after Mr. Biden spent much of Wednesday in meetings with Democratic leaders and nearly two dozen lawmakers, listening to the concerns of the feuding factions in his party over his two top domestic priorities. The Senate-passed bipartisan legislation on infrastructure is being pushed by moderates. Progressives, however, have pledged to hold their votes until the approval of the larger social safety net measure, which will be vastly expanded to address climate, education and other social issues.

Biden encouraged moderates who were unhappy with the package’s size to present a budget level they can support and the priorities they would like to see funded. This was according to senators as well to his aides.

Democrats plan to pass the legislation by party-line using reconciliation, a fast-track budget process that protects it from filibuster and allows for it to be passed on a simple majority vote. Due to the small margins of control in Capitol Hill, Mr. Biden will need the support and endorsement of every Democrat in Senate. He can lose as little as three House Democrats in order to get the plan enacted.

“Democrats have all indicated that we are working on and willing to work on a reconciliation bill,” Representative Stephanie Murphy from Florida, a moderate, has called for a quick vote on the bipartisan Infrastructure measure. “When you’re talking about a bill that touches on all elements of American lives, we should take all the time that is necessary to ensure that we craft a good bill that achieves the goals that it intends.”

Progressive lawmakers, who want the reconciliation bill to be completed first, pressed Mr. Biden Wednesday to speak with House Democratic leaders and oppose a Monday vote on infrastructure bill. Liberal Democrats are concerned that some of their conservative-leaning colleagues might not support the larger plan once it is enacted. They have stated that they will not vote for the bill until the reconciliation plan has cleared Congress.

“They’ve raised their concerns, and the president said, ‘Let me think about it, let me talk to the speaker and majority leader,’” Representative Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, was the Chairman of the Finance Committee. “He made no commitments,” He added. “He heard us out.”

Wyden added that the president had been in a “vintage Joe Biden, let’s-get-it-done mood.”

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