President Joe Biden spent less than an hour on Capitol Hill on Friday as he made a frantic effort to save his multi-trillion political agenda.
As he left he appeared to concede tensions between progressives and centrists within his own party needed more than a quick bit of sweet talking if he was to save his $1 infrastructure bill and a $3.5 spending package.
‘It doesn’t matter if it is six minutes, six days or six weeks,’ he said. ‘We are going to get it done.’
Even so, his brief swing across Washington D.C. was a reminder of the massive stakes in play.
Presidents rarely make the trip to Capitol Hill and prefer to summon lawmakers to the White House for talks.
He arrived shortly before 4pm amid a continuing stalemate around a long-awaited proposal to overhaul the nation’s roads, bridges, ports and Internet infrastructure.
Progressives are refusing to move forward with it until they can be sure centrists will not water down the bigger, $3.5 trillion proposal.
Biden reportedly told lawmakers that the infrastructure bill would not happen until there was agreement on the bigger spending proposal.
‘Even a smaller bill can make historic investments,’ he told them, according to several Congressional reporters citing sources inside the room.
Afterwards Rep. Mike Quigley summed up the sentiment ‘I think the number one message was, if you don’t compromise, you get zero.’
Shortly before Biden left the White House, Press Secretary Jen Psaki said: ‘He wants to speak directly to members, answer their questions and make the case for why we should all work together to give the American people more breathing room.’
President Biden arrives to meet with Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Friday to save his massive spending plan. He koked about the rare nature of his visit to the Capitol, saluting and asking for ‘permission to come aboard
President Biden made a rare visit to Congress on Friday after his huge legislative agenda stalled a night earlier as progressives and centrists in his own party went to war
Biden offered a thumbs up on his way in to meet Democratic lawmakers with his agenda hanging in the balance
He walked through the corridors with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who earlier insisted a vote would still be held on Friday
The motorcade carrying US President Biden travels to the US Capitol in Washington, DC. He made a rare visit hto energize Democrats negotiating for a second day on getting his domestic spending agenda off the ground, or risk crippling political failure
A crowd of protestors was waiting for him when he arrived and urged him not to give ground to holdout centrists demanding.
‘Hold the line,’ they shouted.
Inside he joked about his visit to a foreign branch of government, asking Democratic lawmakers for ‘permission to come aboard’ as he arrived for a make-or-break meeting.
His trip comes after Speaker Nancy Pelosi and his top aides spent Thursday huddled with the pivotal figures and failed to reach a deal with the moderate and liberal branches of the party.
On one side is the 96-member strong Congressional Progressive Caucus, who have banded together in a voting bloc against the infrastructure plan until Senate moderates agree to support the broader social agenda.
On the other side, moderate lawmakers from swing districts, who will be critical to Democrats keeping control of the House in the 2022 midterms, are pleading for the infrastructure vote.
‘The president is not going there to litigate the legislative path forward,’ said Psaki. ‘He’s going there to make the case for how these two packages can help the American people.’
She pushed back against suggestions it was a ‘make or break’ moment for the president’s agenda, saying it was ‘exactly the right time’ for him to go.
Meanwhile, it emerged that centrist holdout Sen Kyrsten Sinema had left Washington D.C. for a medical appointment in Phoenix despite continuing negotiations.
Her office said she remained in touch with the White House.
‘Senator Sinema is in Phoenix where she has a medical appointment today, and where she continues remote negotiations with the White House,’ her office said in a statement.
‘Last night, Kyrsten and our team offered the White House continued discussions and negotiations for this morning. We’re awaiting word from the White House for their availability,’ the statement added.
Sinema broke her foot in June while running the Light at the End of the Tunnel Marathon in Washington state. She is an avid athlete and runner, competing in marathons and ironman triathlons. In the weeks after she was spotted in the Capitol hobbling on crutches and wearing a boot.
The Senate is not expected to vote again until Monday but Sinema is fleeing town as Democrats were unable to come to to a deal on Biden’s $3.5 trillion social agenda package, which includes paid family leave, universal prekindergarten, free tuition at community college, Medicare expansion and strong measures to combat climate change.
House Democrats met Friday morning but no progress was made. They will meet again in the afternoon, when they will hear from the president.
Sinema, along with moderate Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, is one of the hold ups. She wants a lower figure than the $3.5 trillion topline number. Sinema was seen leaving the Capitol late Thursday night after being holed up in talks all day.
The key players – Democratic leadership, White House aides, moderates and liberals – huddled in the basement of the Capitol building late into Thursday night before throwing in the towel shortly before 11 pm, calling off the House’s vote on Biden’s infrastructure plan and vowing to continue the talks on Friday.
Progressives are flexing their muscles. Led by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez they are threatening to tank Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill
Progressive House members are pitted against two centrist Democratic senators who say the $3.5 trillion spending package is too big. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema has not said how much she would accept – but on Friday it emerged she had left town for a medical appointment
The move was a victory for the progressive wing of the party, which held firm to their threat to tank Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure plan if the moderate faction does not also back his $3.5 trillion social spending bill.
And it was a blow to Biden, who prides himself on his reputation as a dealmaker and his deep ties to Capitol Hill.
It leaves his domestic agenda hanging in the balance as the president works frantically to salvage the situation.
Lights were on in the West Wing of the White House late into the night and a Marine guard stood at the front door, a sign Biden remained in the Oval Office, working the phone lines.
Officials will try again on Friday.
‘There’ll be a vote today,’ a weary-looking Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters as she left the Capitol at 12.01am on Friday. ‘We’re not trillions apart.’
However, it remained unclear what progress — if any — had been made between the warring factions, and Pelosi has already twice delayed the vote after first promising it on Monday, and then on Thursday, angering moderates with the delays.
Leadership and White House officials spent Thursday evening targeting Manchin and Sinema. They hoped to convince the two to agree to a $2.1 trillion topline number, Politico reported, but the senators did not sign on.
‘We’re in good-faith negotiations, we’ll continue in good-faith negotiations,’ Manchin told the reporters who swarmed him as he left the Capitol.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was forced to delay a vote planned for Thursday on the bipartisan bill to rebuild roads and bridges amid a progressive revolt, but vowed to bring the measure to the floor on Friday
Senator Joe Manchin, one of the key players, said negotiations would continue on Friday as he left the Capitol building late Thursday night
At the White House, a Marine guard was on duty late outside the West Wing, a sign President Joe Biden was in the Oval Office, working the phones
Manchin has said he wants the budget package to come in at $1.5 trillion – a number he is sticking to.
House progressives, who are holding enough votes to spike any legislation, have vowed to vote against the infrastructure bill unless the Senate passes the $3.5 trillion number.
Pelosi tried to use the pressure of Thursday’s vote deadline to get a deal done but her manuever failed. She did get all sides to the table and talking but it’s unclear if there was any movement.
The progressive wing of the party, meanwhile, has dug in their heels, now saying they want a Senate vote on the $3.5 trillion package before they’ll support the infrastructure bill.
Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar, a leader of House progressives, told reporters: ‘Nothing has changed with our caucus members. We don’t have the votes to pass infrastructure.’
Progressives originally wanted a $6 trillion package. Rep. Cori Bush argued the $3.5 trillion ‘was the compromise.’
The impasse resulted in Biden’s own party digging in to halt almost his entire domestic policy agenda.
Officials insisted that progress had been made, and the White House vowed to bring the warring groups back to the table first thing on Friday.
‘A great deal of progress has been made this week, and we are closer to an agreement than ever,’ said Press Secretary Jen Psaki.
‘But we are not there yet, and so, we will need some additional time to finish the work, starting tomorrow morning first thing.’
The bipartisan infrastructure bill, which has already passed the Senate, now needs only to pass the Democrat-controlled House before it heads to Biden’s desk.
The broader spending package is now in a budgetary process called reconciliation, which requires every Democrat in the evenly divided Senate to vote yes in order to pass without Republican support.
Throughout the day on Thursday, Democratic holdouts Manchin and Sinema were huddled in close talks with White House domestic policy adviser Susan Rice, Director of the National Economic Council Brian Deese, and other White House officials.
After sundown, Pelosi issued a letter to Democratic colleagues saying that it had been ‘a very productive and crucial day.’
‘It has been a day of progress in fulfilling the President’s vision to Build Back Better,’ she wrote, referencing the slogan for Biden’s domestic agenda.
‘All of this momentum brings us closer to shaping the reconciliation bill in a manner that will pass the House and Senate,’ Pelosi added.
But as the hours stretched on, it became clear no deal was apparent.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema leaves a private meeting with White House officials on Capitol Hill Thursday, but appeared to reach no deal
Reporters sit in the hallway outside of a closed-door meeting with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and White House officials in the basement of the Capitol
The setback for Biden’s agenda came despite a moment of victory earlier in the day as Republicans and Democrats agreed to keep funding the federal government through December 3.
But instead of inviting reporters into the Oval Office to watch the president sign a funding bill to keep the government running, the White House simply sent out a picture of the signing and a statement.
‘There’s so much more to do,’ said Biden.
‘But the passage of this bill reminds us that bipartisan work is possible and it gives us time to pass longer-term funding to keep our government running and delivering for the American people.’
Speaker Nancy Pelosi exits the Capitol building after midnight on Thursday after officials failed to come to a deal on Biden’s domestic agenda
The White House issued a photograph of President Biden signing a bill to avert government shutdown on Thursday rather than inviting press cameras to witness the moment as he and officials battle to stave off an embarrassing setback to his domestic policy agenda
House progressives, including Reps. Ilhan Omar (left) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (right), vowed to vote against the infrastructure bill unless Manchin and Sinema sign on to support a bigger $3.5 trillion social spending package as well
The legislation to keep the government open was a bright spot on Thursday as moderates and liberals hammered each other in public while trying to hammer out a deal behind closed doors
The two Democratic holdouts posed for a picture on Thursday morning as Sinema said talks had been productive
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Cori Bush blasted Manchin for now demanding that Democrats trim the budget package to $1.5 trillion after backing an earlier version of the massive plan.
‘We need to be serious and right now when we are seeing from the conservative side and the small cadre of people is a fundamentally unserious pattern of negotiation,’ Ocasio-Cortez told ABC News.
She ridiculed what she saw as a change in stance.
‘Which senator are we negotiating with?’ she asked.
‘Will it be June Manchin? Is it September Manchin? Is it August Manchin? … Will it be a different senator that pops up?’
House Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal also condemned moderates for standing in the way of the bigger spending package.
‘We won’t let massive corporations, billionaires, and a few conservative Democrats stand in the way of delivering transformational progress for millions of working people,’ she said in a tweet.
‘Stick to the plan. Pass both bills, together.’
The huge bill will be funded with tax hikes that mainly target the rich.
They included raising the corporate tax rate from 21 per cent to 26 percent for the biggest companies, and the top income tax rate for Americans making over $400,000 would increase from 37 per cent to 39.6 percent. The top capital gains rate would also go from 20 percent to 25 percent.
With the two wings of the Democratic Party apparently at war, the White House tried to play down the idea that Biden was not in control of his own party.
Press Secretary Jen Psaki said different opinions were a normal part of politics.
‘This is how democracy works,’ she said during her daily briefing before aiming a dig at former President Donald Trump.
‘I know it feels foreign because there wasn’t much that happened over the last couple of years
‘But how it works is the American people elect their elected officials, the president of the United States puts forward a bold and ambitious proposal, and then everybody negotiates about it.’
THE PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATS IN THE HOUSE BIDEN AND PELOSI NEED TO PERSUADE
AOC walks out of a Democratic caucus meeting at the Capitol on Friday morning during negotiations
Nancy Pelosi only has a four-vote majority in the House to make try and get the infrastructure package through.
Many on the left of the party have said they want the $3.5trillion reconciliation to be passed first or at the same time.
Below are a list of 95 names Pelosi and President Biden need to get on their side if they want to succeed.
If five are against the plans, the vote could fail, if all Republicans vote against the measure.
Arizona
Raúl Grijalva (AZ-3, Tucson)
Ruben Gallego (AZ-7, Phoenix)
California
Jared Huffman (CA-2, San Rafael)
Mark DeSaulnier (CA-11, Concord)
Barbara Lee (CA-13, Oakland)
Ro Khanna (CA-17, Fremont)
Zoe Lofgren (CA-19, San Jose)
Jimmy Panetta (CA-20, Carmel Valley)
Judy Chu (CA-27, El Monte)
Brad Sherman (CA-30, Sherman Oaks)
Grace Napolitano (CA-32, Norwalk)
Ted Lieu (CA-33, Los Angeles)
Jimmy Gomez (CA-34, Los Angeles)
Karen Bass (CA-37, Baldwin Hills)
Linda Sanchez (CA-38, Lakewood)
Mark Takano (CA-41, Riverside)
Maxine Waters (CA-43, Inglewood)
Nanette Barragán (CA-44, San Pedro)
Katie Porter (CA-45, Irvine)
Alan Lowenthal (CA-47, Long Beach)
Mike Levin (CA-49, San Juan Capistrano)
Juan Vargas (CA-51, San Diego)
Sara Jacobs (CA-53, Bankers Hill)
Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-40)
Colorado
Diana DeGette (CO-1, Denver)
Joe Neguse (CO-2, Boulder)
Connecticut
Rosa DeLauro (CT-3, New Haven)
Pramila Jayapal speaks to reporters during negotiations on Thursday night
Delaware
Lisa Blunt Rochester (DE at-large)
Florida
Darren Soto (FL-9, Orlando)
Lois Frankel (FL-21, West Palm Beach)
Frederica Wilson (FL-24, North Miami)
Georgia
Hank Johnson (GA-4, Lithonia)
Nikema Williams (GA-5, Atlanta)
Hawaii
Kai Kahele (HI-2, Honolulu)
Illinois
Marie Newman (IL-3, Western Springs)
Chuy Garcia (IL-4, Chicago)
Jan Schakowsky (IL-9, Chicago)
Indiana
André Carson (IN-7, Indianapolis)
Kentucky
John Yarmuth (KY-3, Louisville)
Maine
Chellie Pingree (ME-1, North Haven)
Maryland
Jamie Raskin (MD-8, Takoma Park)
Massachusetts
Jim McGovern (MA-2, Worcester)
Lori Trahan (MA-3, Westford)
Katherine Clark (MA-5, Melrose)
Ayanna Pressley (MA-7, Dorchester)
Michigan
Dan Kildee (MI-5, Flint Township)
Andy Levin (MI-9, Bloomfield Township)
Debbie Dingell (MI-12, Dearborn)
Rashida Tlaib (MI-13, Detroit)
Brenda Lawrence (MI-14, Southfield)
Minnesota
Ilhan Omar (MN-5, Minneapolis)
Missouri
Cori Bush (MO-1, St. Louis)
Nevada
Steven Horsford (NV-4, Las Vegas)
New Jersey
Donald Norcross (NJ-1, Camden)
Andy Kim (NJ-3, Bordentown)
Frank Pallone (NJ-6, Long Branch)
Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12, Trenton)
New Mexico
Melanie Stansbury (NM-1, Albuquerque)
Teresa Leger Fernandez (NM-3, Santa Fe)
New York
Grace Meng (NY-6, Queens)
Nydia Velázquez (NY-7, Brooklyn)
Hakeem Jeffries (NY-8, Brooklyn)
Yvette Clarke (NY-9, Brooklyn)
Jerrold Nadler (NY-10, Manhattan)
Carolyn Maloney (NY-12, Manhattan)
Adriano Espaillat (NY-13, Manhattan)
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14, Bronx)
Ritchie Torres (NY-15, Bronx)
Jamaal Bowman (NY-16, Bronx)
Mondaire Jones (NY-17, Harrison)
Joe Morelle (NY-25, Rochester)
North Carolina
Alma Adams (NC-12, Charlotte)
Oregon
Suzanne Bonamici (OR-1, Beaverton)
Earl Blumenauer (OR-3, Portland)
Peter DeFazio (OR-4, Springfield)
Pennsylvania
Brendan Boyle (PA-2, Philadelphia)
Dwight Evans (PA-3, Philadelphia)
Madeleine Dean (PA-4, Abington Township)
Mary Gay Scanlon (PA-5, Swarthmore)
Matt Cartwright (PA-8, Scranton)
Rhode Island
David Cicilline (RI-1, Providence)
Tennessee
Steve Cohen (TN-9, Memphis)
Texas
Veronica Escobar (TX-16, El Paso)
Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18, Houston)
Sylvia Garcia (TX-29, Houston)
Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX-30, Dallas)
Lloyd Doggett (TX-35, Austin)
Vermont
Peter Welch (VT at-Large)
Virginia
Don Beyer (VA-8, Alexandria)
Washington
Pramila Jayapal (WA-7, Seattle)
Adam Smith (WA-9, Bellevue)
Wisconsin
Mark Pocan (WI-2, Madison)
Gwen Moore (WI-4, Milwaukee)