Dingell: Biden needs to speak to ‘more than just two senators’

Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell (Mich.) on Wednesday called on President Biden to become more involved in congressional efforts to advance his economic agenda, saying she thinks he needs “to talk to more than two senators.” 

Dingell said in an interview on MSNBC on early Wednesday that some Democrats are having trouble trying to figure out where Biden stands as the party struggles to unite on a path forward to advance a multitrillion-dollar social spending package. 

Last week, the House Budget Committee voted along party lines to advance the social spending plan, which could unlock funding for Democratic-backed agenda items like tuition-free community college, universal pre-K, as well as Medicare expansions.

Democrats hope to pass the package using a process called reconciliation that allows them to bypass the Senate’s legislative filibuster. 

However, staying unified has been a tough task for Democrats who have had disagreements over the size of the package and proposed corporate tax hikes, among other provisions.

Biden has been meeting with party leadership and various members this month amid talks over the reconciliation package and a Senate-approved bipartisan infrastructure deal that has yet to pass the House. 

Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), two key Democratic centrists in the Senate, have also been seen at the White House multiple times in recent days. Their resistance has slowed the spending package’s progress, and Democrats in the upper chamber cannot lose support from either lawmaker if they want the reconciliation bill to pass. 

“I think he’s got to talk to more than two senators now people want to know, okay, we’re being held hostage by a couple of senators I want to talk together we will work together,” Dingell said on Wednesday.

“You hear about two senators all the time, you hear about a few House members, and there are a lot of House members in between … that all care, they represent constituencies, they’re trying to figure out the right thing to do,” she continued.

“They need to know exactly where the president stands and what the president wants them to do and they’re getting mixed signals depending on who you talk to,” Dingell added.

Dingell said members have been told they “have to be with the president,” but asked: “What is it that the president wants?”

“Nobody can even answer that question and I heard frontliners really very frustrated yesterday expressing that viewpoint,” she said. “So, I think that’s a problem for the White House.”