Biden Presses Dems to Agree on Plan    09/23 06:10

   With a personal push, President Joe Biden pressed fellow Democrats to hasten 
work on his big "build back better" agenda, telling them to come up with a 
final framework and their best topline budget figure as the party labors to 
bridge its divisions in Congress ahead of crucial voting deadlines.

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- With a personal push, President Joe Biden pressed fellow 
Democrats to hasten work on his big "build back better" agenda, telling them to 
come up with a final framework and their best topline budget figure as the 
party labors to bridge its divisions in Congress ahead of crucial voting 
deadlines.

   Biden and Democratic House and Senate lawmakers met for hours of 
back-to-back-to-back private White House sessions stretching into Wednesday 
evening, convened at a pivotal juncture for Biden's $3.5 trillion package as 
lawmakers struggle to draft details of the ambitious effort. With Republicans 
solidly opposed, Democratic leaders are counting on the president to galvanize 
consensus between progressives and centrists in their party.

   Biden first conferred with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority 
Leader Chuck Schumer, then held separate sessions with moderate and progressive 
senators and representatives. The president listened intently, lawmakers said, 
but also indicated strongly he wanted progress soon, by next week.

   "We're in good shape," Pelosi told reporters after returning to the Capitol.

   The White House called the meetings "productive and candid" and said 
follow-up work would be immediately underway. Earlier in the day, press 
secretary Jen Psaki said the White House realized that with time growing short 
"there needs to be deeper engagement by the president."

   The intense focus on Biden's big-money domestic proposal showcases how much 
is at stake politically for the president and his party in Congress. The 
administration has suffered setbacks elsewhere, notably with the Afghanistan 
withdrawal and prolonged COVID-19 crisis, and Democrats are running short of 
time, anxious to make good on campaign promises.

   Congress is racing toward Monday's deadline for a House vote on the first 
part of Biden's plan -- a $1 trillion public works measure -- which now also 
serves as a deadline for producing a compromise framework for the broader 
package.

   At one point, Biden told the lawmakers there were plenty of conference rooms 
at the White House they could use to hunker down this weekend as some suggested 
they roll up their sleeves and stay to get final details done.

   Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a key centrist who has balked at the $3.5 
trillion price tag, said the president told him to come up with a number he 
could live with.

   "He just basically said, 'Find it,'" Manchin said. "'Just work on it, give 
me a number.'"

   "The president is really fired up," said Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, chairman 
of the Senate Finance Committee, after the evening's final session.

   Meanwhile, the House and Senate remained at a standstill over a separate 
package to keep the government funded past the Sept. 30 fiscal yearend and to 
suspend the federal debt limit to avert a shutdown and a devastating U.S. 
default on payments. Senate Republicans are refusing the House-passed bill.

   Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said at a news conference Tuesday 
that failing to extend the debt limit was "just not something we can 
contemplate or we should contemplate."

   As for Biden's big plans, the president and the Democratic lawmakers 
appeared to have not fully resolved their differences ahead of Monday's test 
vote on the smaller public works bill for roads, broadband and public water 
projects.

   Centrist Democrats want swift passage of the slimmer public works bill and 
have raised concerns about the price tag of Biden's broader vision, but 
progressive Democrats are withholding their votes for the $1 trillion measure 
they view as inadequate unless it's linked to the bigger package.

   Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, a leader of the centrist coalition who 
attended one of the White House meetings, said all agreed on doing both -- 
passing the bill Monday and working on the bigger package.

   But Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, chairwoman of the Congressional 
Progressive Caucus, issued a statement after another meeting with Biden 
reiterating that some 50 members plan to vote against the bipartisan measure 
unless it's linked to the broader bill. She has said the two bills must move 
"in tandem" to win the progressive votes.

   Beyond the public works measure, Biden's "build back" agenda is a sweeping 
overhaul of federal taxes and spending to make what the president views as 
overdue investments in health care, family services and efforts to fight 
climate change.

   The $3.5 trillion package would impose tax hikes on corporations and wealthy 
Americans earning beyond $400,000 a year and plow that money back into federal 
programs for young and old, along with investments to tackle climate change.

   Tensions are high as the Biden agenda is a key campaign promise not only 
from the president but most of the the Democratic lawmakers, including those in 
the House who face re-election next year.

   "It wasn't a matter of when we get it done, it was how we get it done," said 
Rep. Steven Horsford of Nevada, who was with the moderate group meeting with 
Biden.

   All told, more than 20 lawmakers were invited to confer with Biden, 
moderates and progressives in separate meetings stretching into the evening, 
making their best pitches, Manchin and another key centrist Sen. Kyrsten Sinema 
of Arizona, among them.

   Despite disputes, many Democrats say they expect the final product to align 
with Biden's broader vision and eventually have robust party support, even if 
that version is adjusted or scaled back.

   But Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., a leader of the centrist Blue Dog caucus, 
said the big bill will take more time. "I'm not sure that we're at a place of 
closing out just yet," she said.

   While all this is going on, the government faces a shutdown if funding stops 
on Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year. Additionally, at some point in October 
the U.S. risks defaulting on its accumulated debt load if its borrowing limits 
are not waived or adjusted.

   Rushing to prevent that dire outcome, the Democratic-led House passed the 
funding-and-debt measure Tuesday night, but Republicans are refusing to give 
their support in the Senate, despite the risk of triggering a fiscal crisis.

   Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has said since Democrats control 
the White House and Congress, it's their problem to find the votes -- though he 
had relied on bipartisan cooperation to approve debt limit measures when 
Republicans were in charge.

   But in the 50-50 Senate, Democrats will be hard-pressed to find 10 
Republicans to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a filibuster. 
Other options to try to pass the debt ceiling package could be procedurally 
difficult.