Klobuchar confident spending bill will be finished before Christmas

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said on Sunday that she is confident Democrats’ social spending bill will be finished before Christmas.

“You laid out what you see as the benefits of the plan. But your Democratic colleague from West Virginia, Sen. Joe Manchin, continues to signal that he wants to push this off until next year. What are the consequences of delay? Are you confident it will get done before Christmas?” “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos asked Klobuchar on ABC.

“I am. Sen. Manchin is still at the negotiating table, talking to us every day, talking to us about voting rights, getting that bill done, restoring the Senate. He’s talking to us about this bill,” the Minnesota senator answered.

Klobuchar noted that senators have a busy week ahead of them, including passing their annual defense policy bill, raising the debt ceiling before early December, and passing voting rights legislation as well their social spending bill.

“We can get this done. To me, it’s an old song,” Klobuchar quipped.

“The song is a little less talk and a lot more action,” she said.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar tells @GStephanopoulos that she’s confident the Build Back Better plan will be completed by Christmas.

“Sen. Manchin is still at the negotiating table.” https://t.co/srgZHCQ5im pic.twitter.com/30Oe1tr7g9

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) November 28, 2021

The Senate after the Thanksgiving break is expected to take up a social spending bill that passed the House earlier this month. Some Democrats anticipate that it be tweaked from the House-passed version.

“Whatever it is, it will still be transformative and historic. And I don’t fear that,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said.

Some Democratic senators are trying to work with Manchin to retain aspects of the social spending bill that passed the House. Sen Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said last weekend she was working on keeping paid family leave in the package.