Biden to Meet With Democrats on Pushing His Economic Agenda

Politics|Biden is acceptable to conscionable with Democrats arsenic his economical docket hangs successful the balance.

• Sept. 22, 2021, 8:12 a.m. ET

President Biden is expected to big a bid of meetings connected Wednesday with Democratic lawmakers, including enactment leaders, arsenic helium works to support his enactment agreed astir his $4 trillion economical docket and robust retired heavy divisions implicit his argumentation proposals.

He is expected to conscionable with Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the bulk leader, arsenic good arsenic lawmakers from crossed the ideological scope of his caucus, according to radical acquainted with the plans, who disclosed them connected information of anonymity.

The flurry of meetings comes arsenic some pieces of his economical docket — a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure measure and a second, expansive $3.5 trillion economical bundle that supporters mean to propulsion done with lone Democratic votes — look imperiled arsenic mean and wide Democrats jockey for leverage successful a narrowly divided Congress.

Liberal Democrats stay adamant that a bulk of their ranks volition artifact a planned Sept. 27 ballot connected the infrastructure bill, which cleared the Senate earlier this year, until the $3.5 trillion bundle archetypal passes the precocious enclosure done the fast-track reconciliation process.

For weeks, those successful that helping of the enactment person insisted that their enactment for the infrastructure bundle is contingent connected the scope and occurrence of the larger package, which carries astir of their ambitions but needs the backing of virtually each Democrat successful Congress to debar a Republican filibuster and get it to Mr. Biden’s desk.

As the imaginable stalemate brewed, Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington State, the chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, emerged from a 90-minute gathering with Ms. Pelosi connected Tuesday. Ms. Jayapal said she had requested the gathering to reiterate that “we request to beryllium perfectly definite it is passed successful the Senate, and truthful that’s inactive our position.”

But moderates, who pushed House Democratic leaders to acceptable the Sept. 27 ballot for the infrastructure legislation, remained assured that their wide counterparts would yet enactment the package. The acold much expansive economical bundle has not been completed, with Democrats haggling implicit the scope and operation of the plan.

“This is critically important to the White House,” said Representative Josh Gottheimer, a New Jersey Democrat and 1 of the moderates who pushed for that commitment. “I’m optimistic we’ll not lone get it to the floor, but we’ll get the votes.”