Moderate Democrats Senator Joe Manchin and Senator Kyrsten Sinema held separate meetings with President Biden at the White House Tuesday, as the White House and most Democrats push an up-to $3.5 trillion bill to expand the social safety net.
Mr. Biden’s first-term domestic agenda is packed into the massive bill, which has no Republican support and will have to be passed by using a budgetary process called reconciliation. This will enable it to pass with 50 votes, rather than the 60 votes that are normally required to pass Senate measures. Its fate is largely in the hands of the two moderates, Sinema and Manchin, because the Senate is evenly divided, 50-50.
