White House Releases Scaled Down Reconciliation Package

Last week, amid House Democrats’ negotiations over the bipartisan infrastructure framework and the reconciliation package, the White House released a scaled-back version of the $3.5 trillion package Democrats have been negotiating for months (a fact sheet is here and a framework is here). The package represents more than $1.75 trillion in spending on social, health and climate policy.

House leadership was hopeful to get an agreement on the framework for reconciliation and thus secure the votes of House progressives for the infrastructure bill. In a sign that negotiations were getting close, the House Rules Committee held an emergency meeting on Thursday to consider legislative text for the scaled-back framework. However, Congress adjourned for the week without considering the package. Previous iterations of the domestic spending package have met resistance from moderates in both the House and Senate, in particular Senators Manchin (D-WV) and Sinema (D-AZ). With a 50-50 party split in the Senate and Vice President Kamala Harris breaking any ties, Senate Democrats need every member of their party to support the final package. On Monday afternoon, Manchin announced that he was not prepared to support a $1.75 trillion reconciliation package, potentially upending Democrats’ chances of moving forward on the Build Back Better proposal.

For more information, contact Andrew Tyrrell at atyrrell@nrmca.org.