The president’s meeting with Democrats lasted for roughly half an hour, ending at 4:26 p.m. with no clear agreement. Afterward, he told reporters they’re going to “get it done,” but did not say how or when.
Lawmakers in the meeting tell CBS News Mr. Biden urged them to seek compromise with more moderate members of their own party and keep working to resolve differences over trillions of dollars in new federal spending. Despite pressure to cleave apart the two pieces of legislation to pay for infrastructure and social spending policy, he said the packages should be approved in tandem and set no timetable for when he’d like to see it done.
“The president said that the bills need to go together, we can’t do the infrastructure bill before we have an agreement on reconciliation,” one member in the room said. “Even though it was his agenda, and he thinks that’s $3.5 trillion is something we could all campaign on, the votes aren’t there, so let’s work together to figure out what we can get.”
In the meeting, Biden admitted that hours of talks with moderate Democratic senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona had done little to win their support for the more expensive package, meaning liberal Democrats will need to seek compromise with the senators to pass both bills.
“He said whatever we’re not able to get in the original $3.5 trillion framework he’ll keep fighting for in his presidency,” that member in attendance told CBS News.
Members were banned from having phones in the room — a move designed to quash leaks that had been seeping out most of the day from the ongoing talks.
—Zak Hudak, Nancy Cordes contributed to this report.
