Manchin cast doubt on deal this week for $3.5T spending bill

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Monday appeared to pour cold water on Democratic leadership’s hopes of reaching a deal on a sweeping spending bill in time for a Thursday vote on the Senate-passed infrastructure bill.

Manchin, asked if he considered Thursday a deadline for working out an agreement on the sweeping social spending package, appeared skeptical.

“I don’t know how you could. I don’t know. It’s so complicated and so convoluted. …We’re looking at every aspect we can. …We want to be fair with everybody,” Manchin said about having a deal on a framework for the bill worked out by Thursday.

Manchin told CNN earlier Monday that hitting a Thursday deadline would be a “heavy lift.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) wrote in a letter to her caucus on Sunday that the Senate-passed infrastructure bill will come up for a vote on Thursday. Democrats, according to her letter, would also “conclude negotiations on the Build Back Better Act” this week, referring to the $3.5 trillion social spending legislation that Democrats are still trying to craft.

But because Pelosi has committed to not making her caucus vote on a bill larger than what can pass the Senate, Democrats say they need Manchin and fellow moderate Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) to detail what they can, and can’t, support in the larger package.

Pelosi can only afford to lose three members of her caucus in a vote on the larger package given her slim majority in the House.

Democrats are increasingly acknowledging that the $3.5 trillion top-line is likely to slip amid the pushback from moderates. President Biden, during the closed-door meeting last week, urged a group of moderates, including Manchin and Sinema, to come up with a number they could support.

Manchin hasn’t publicly said what top-line he would be willing to support, but is privately talking with Biden and the White House. Pressed on a $2 trillion topline, he told reporters: “No, I’m not answering you okay.”

But if House Democratic leadership moves forward with its plan to hold a vote this week on the Senate-passed infrastructure bill, that will force progressives to decide if they will carry through with their plan to sink it.

Manchin said it would be a “shame” if progressives sink the infrastructure bill and predicted that it would pass—eventually.

“I guarantee you this, the infrastructure bill will be passed before November 2022,” he said.

A group of nine House moderates released a statement earlier Monday calling for the Senate-passed bill to be sent to Biden’s desk this week.

“Debate on the bipartisan infrastructure bill begins today with a vote no later than Thursday. …It’s time to send the bipartisan infrastructure bill to the president’s desk for his signature,” they said.