House Democrats aim for new votes on Biden agenda after Virginia loss – live

More than 100 million American workers must be fully vaccinated against coronavirus by January 4, according to two new rules issued by the Biden administration.

The first rule, issued by the labor department’s occupational safety and health administration (OSHA), applies to those who work for companies with 100 or more employees.

Those employees must be fully vaccinated by January 4 or receive weekly coronavirus tests to mitigate the potential spread of the virus among coworkers.

According to a fact sheet from the White House, that rule will impact roughly 84 million working Americans.

The second policy, issued by the centers for Medicare & Medicaid services (CMS) at the department of health and human services, requires workers at healthcare facilities to be fully vaccinated by January 4.

But the 17 million Americans impacted by the CMS policy will not have the option to test out of the vaccination requirement.

Joe Biden announced in September that he was taking additional steps to boost vaccination rates in the US, but his administration has only just finalized the details of some of those policies.

House majority leader Steny Hoyer was asked whether he believes the chamber may hold a vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the reconciliation package today.

“It’s been close for a long time. We’ll see,” Hoyer said, per Politico.

House Democratic leaders are now holding a meeting, so Hoyer may soon have an update on the timing of the votes.

And House speaker Nancy Pelosi is also scheduled to hold a press conference in about an hour. Stay tuned.

Joe Manchin also warned Democrats against going “too far left” with their $1.75tn reconciliation package, as progressives call for robust investments in healthcare, childcare and climate initiatives.

“We just have to work together. We can’t go too far left,” Manchin told CNN this morning.

“This is not a center-left or a left country. We are a center, if anything, a center-right country.”

Manchin described himself as “fiscally responsible and socially compassionate” and he argued most Americans “in the middle” of the political spectrum view themselves the same way.

Speaking to his progressive colleagues, Manchin said, “Realize what can and can’t be done. Don’t force basically something that’s not going to happen to make people believe it will.”

Senator Joe Manchin is still expressing concerns about the House version of the reconciliation package, specifically the proposal to fund four weeks of paid family and medical leave.

Manchin, one of two Democratic holdouts in the Senate as the party crafts the reconciliation package, previously pushed to eliminate the paid leave proposal because of its cost.

“I don’t think it belongs in the bill,” Manchin told CNN this morning.

The West Virginia senator warned that, if the paid leave program were funded through reconciliation, Republicans would end the policy once they took control of Congress.

“Let’s get it done in regular order through the process,” Manchin said.

Of course, Manchin also opposes altering or eliminating the Senate filibuster, meaning such a bill would likely need 60 votes to pass. And there is currently no path to attract 10 Republican votes on a paid leave bill.

Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.

House Democrats are still hoping to approve the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the $1.75tn reconciliation package by the end of the week.

Majority leader Steny Hoyer indicated that the House may vote on the two bills as soon as today, despite ongoing arguments among Democrats over the specifics of the reconciliation package.

The potential votes come two days after Democrats suffered a bruising loss in the gubernatorial race of Virginia, a state that Biden carried by 10 points last year.

Asked about the Virginia defeat yesterday, Joe Biden acknowledged that voters are frustrated with Democrats’ delays in advancing his economic agenda.

“I do know that people want us to get things done. They want us to get things done,” Biden said.

“And that’s why I’m continuing to push very hard for the Democratic party to move along and pass my infrastructure bill and my Build Back Better bill.”

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.