President Joe Biden will meet with House Democrats on Friday afternoon as the caucus remains divided on his proposed infrastructure plan.
Biden heads to his old grounds on Capitol Hill, where he served as a senator from 1973 to 2009 before his election as vice president, after Democrats failed to vote on a bipartisan infrastructure package that was already approved by the Senate in August on Thursday. at night.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had initially scheduled the vote to take place Thursday night after telling moderates in her group that the vote would take place this week.
But after progressives in the House and Senator Bernie Sanders announced their opposition to the bill if it did not include a larger welfare bill, Democrats want to go through the Senate through a process called reconciliation with only 51 votes and avoid a republican obstructionism.
White House officials met Thursday night with Sens Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, both conservative Democrats who have raised objections about the cost of reconciliation legislation. Both are irritated by the Democrats’ proposed price of $ 3.5 trillion and Manchin has proposed that the package be around $ 1.5 trillion.