West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin said Tuesday that the Build Back Better bill is “dead” as Democrats try to revive spending talks, Talking Points Memo reports.
“What Build Back Better bill?” Manchin said when asked by reporters about the legislation. “I don’t know what you all are talking about.”
Asked if he’s talked about the spending legislation with the White House, Manchin said, “No, no, no — it’s dead.”
Manchin said any negotiations would not have to begin from scratch.
“Whatever we are going to come up with, anything you want to be put on the table we can talk about,” he said.
Manchin shut down negotiations on the bill after the White House called him out in a statement over the delay.
Dems try to resurrect “chunks”:
President Joe Biden has said that he still hopes to pass “chunks” of the original proposal.
The White House has been in talks with other senators about resurrecting pieces of the bill that Manchin had supported.
But Manchin is currently working with a group of bipartisan senators on a bill to reform the Electoral Count Act after the Democrats’ voting rights proposal failed. That means negotiations on the spending bill may be further delayed until it’s closer to the midterms.
Manchin may be “gettable”:
Democrats are still optimistic they can work out a deal with Manchin.
“I think he's gettable. I think we will get him. I think this is going to happen,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told Politico.
“He is publicly on record saying he supports investments in the care economy and supports the investments to bring about universal pre-K,” Raimondo said. “We know there are a large parts of it he does support.”
Raimondo acknowledged that “huge infrastructure” packages can take a long time to sort out but “sooner is better.”
