Democrats face scaling down Biden’s social safety net plan

Congressional Democrats eager to make progress on President Biden’s “Build Back Better” plan are beginning to confront the harrowing challenge of squeezing their ambitious remodeling of the nation’s social safety net programs into the much smaller package needed to win over key centrists.

For a second day, Democratic leaders and White House officials gathered on Capitol Hill in hopes of reaching agreement on a framework for the social investment package, which has been expected to establish paid family leave and subsidies for child care, elder care and community college, as well as fortify existing health programs, among other progressive ambitions.

Biden met behind closed doors with rank-and-file House Democrats on Friday to rally their support. He urged them to find compromise around a $2-trillion price tag for the 10-year package, down from the $3.5 trillion Democrats have publicly considered for months.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) was hoping an agreement on a framework would unleash support from a group of progressives who have said they would not vote for the first portion of Biden’s plan — a bipartisan bill to repair the nation’s roads and bridges and upgrade other infrastructure — until they are assured that conservative Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona will support the second portion — the social safety net bill.

Pelosi had said earlier Friday that the House would vote on the $1-trillion infrastructure plan, after delaying the vote twice already this week. But by the evening, the vote was canceled again, with no next steps announced.

“While great progress has been made in the negotiations to develop a House, Senate and White House agreement on the Build Back Better Act, more time is needed to complete the task,” Pelosi wrote in a late-night letter to fellow Democrats.

The speaker had aimed to use Thursday night’s expiration of annual highway funding as a pressure point to vote on the infrastructure bill. But in a sign of how far away a broader deal might be, the House on Friday approved only a 30-day stopgap highway bill.

Biden, too, expressed no urgency for an immediate vote.

“It doesn’t matter whether it is six minutes, six days or six weeks. We’re going to get it done,” Biden said as he left the meeting in the Capitol basement.

The new focus on approximately $2 trillion for the social spending plan comes after Manchin said for the first time publicly Thursday that he could support no more than $1.5 trillion, meaning Democrats are all but certain to have to significantly reshape the package. It cannot pass the Senate without Manchin and Sinema’s votes, assuming all 50 of the chamber’s Republicans continue to oppose it.

Democrats are just beginning to contend with the decision of whether to name winners and losers from the original package in order to ensure the remaining programs are fully funded, or slice a bit off each one,…