Several Democratic senators say they are frustrated with the prospect of Manchin ever giving the green light to launch a fiscal reconciliation package that would prevent Republicans from blocking Biden’s legislative agenda with a pro-Gerro war in Georgia. Asked how much confidence there was in Manchin passing a reconciliation bill, a Democratic senator, who asked not to be named to comment on the shrinking odds, said it was “less every day.”
A second Democratic senator said efforts to negotiate with Manchin individually, either under the leadership of senior White House officials or by Senate Majority Leader Charles Sumer (DN.Y.), were unsuccessful.
“This is the period of ‘construction or downtime,’” the lawmaker said, referring to the current five-week working period that lasts until Memorial Day weekend.
“I think we should have a moment of coming to Jesus,” the source said. “The approach to the back room did not work.”
The Democratic senators received little information about the location of the Conciliation Package talks at their luncheon meeting Tuesday, the first time the Democrats have met in its entirety since returning from a two-week break. April.
Manchin missed much of that meeting. Two days later, reporters asked him and GOP senators about a claim in a new book that Manchin said he would be willing to turn to the Republican Party if Senator John Thune (SD) were the GOP leader instead. of Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
Mancin told reporters Thursday that his Republican counterparts often tease him about changing parties and never seriously considered leaving the Democratic Party.
“I accept this question every day. “These are all my friends on both sides of the aisle,” Manchin was quoted as saying when asked about the report. “The point is, I’m a Democrat in West Virginia. I’m not a Democrat in Washington. And I’m not a very liberal person. I’m more centrist. “I am financially responsible and socially compassionate,” he added.
The mockery of Mancin and his Republican counterparts raises doubts that he will not sign a partisan reconciliation package this year to implement key elements of Biden’s domestic agenda with 50 Democratic votes and no GOP votes. Democrats have also noted that Mancin’s opposition to various democratic initiatives seems to be playing well at home. In addition to opposing the promotion of Biden Build Back Better’s agenda, Manchin opposed Biden’s appointment of Neera Tanden as Head of the Office of Management and Budget and Sarah Bloom Raskin as Deputy Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Manchin’s acceptance score in West Virginia has jumped 17 points from a year ago, according to a Morning Consult poll released Monday. Fifty-seven percent of West Virginia residents now approve of Mancin’s job performance, compared to just 40 percent after the first three months of 2021.
The rise in popularity in West Virginia, a state held by Donald Trump with 69 percent of the vote in 2020, makes it less likely that it will reverse its course and support a fiscal reconciliation package that passes without a single GOP vote. , his Democratic colleagues are afraid. .
Adding to the Democrats’ concerns, Manchin convened a bipartisan group of senators in a bid to pass an energy package that would also tackle climate change with 60 votes in favor.
It is a worrying development for Democratic senators who hoped that a package on climate and renewable energy would be a key element of the fiscal reconciliation package. Now part of the climate and energy part of the reconciliation package is competing with what Manchin is trying to negotiate with a group of Republicans.
Senator Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Who attended the first bipartisan meeting convened by Manchin on energy and climate proposals, told The Hill that there is “a lot of overlap” with what has been discussed for inclusion in the reconciliation package. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), a leading supporter of the Senate on combating climate change, also attended Monday’s meeting, which was attended by Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Tom Carper (D-Del.) And Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.) And John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) Along with Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer (ND).
Schatz declined to comment on the meeting, but the mere fact that he was invited shows that Manchin hopes to address some of his colleagues’ climate priorities on a regular basis rather than through a budget deal.
Asked if the bipartisan energy package he was drafting was intended to replace the strategy of moving an energy and climate package to a fiscal reconciliation bill, Manchin told The Hill: “We are trying to get input from everyone. I want a contribution. ” Pressed on whether climate and energy legislation should move beyond the process of budget reconciliation, Manchin said he would like to follow the same bipartisan approach he used last year to help negotiate a $ 1 trillion infrastructure bill. with 69 votes.
“Anything we can do according to the lines we did for the infrastructure bill would be great if we could,” he said. “We are determined to do something on the path to credible energy, so that we can have credible energy for our country.” He explained that he wants to ensure that what he considers to be the most reliable fossil fuels will not be shut down too soon, while the nation is making the transition to cleaner renewable fuels. “I want to work in a bipartisan way,” he said.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (DR.I.), a leading advocate for carbon reduction, however, predicts that any package negotiated with Republicans will fall far short of the goals of Biden Build Back Better’s agenda.
“It seems very unlikely that anything Republican was also serious about the climate at this stage,” he said.
Manchin says an energy package should support the production of fossil fuels as well as renewable energy, an effort that puts him in conflict with Whitehouse and other Democrats who see the reconciliation package as their best opportunity in perhaps the next ten years to reduce global warming emissions to a great extent. The Hill’s Morning Report – Biden’s financial problems on the rise The British Prime Minister of the British Virgin Islands has been arrested for drug charges in the US “We need a two-way system. “You have to have the climate and you have to have the credibility of the fossils,” he told reporters on Thursday, dismissing talk of trying to move the nation away quickly from oil, gas and coal. “You can not eliminate one before the other. “I follow two paths. I want to make sure that we have credibility and that we are energy independent. “I want to make sure we do everything we can to improve the climate.”
Manchin has scheduled two more meetings next week with the bipartisan group to sign a compromise bill on energy, according to a GOP senator invited to attend.