Manchin says ‘I don’t see a deal tonight’

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said after a meeting with White House officials and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) that there would not be a deal on Thursday night on a framework for a social spending bill.

“We’re going to come to an agreement. I’m trying to make sure they understand I’m at $1.5 trillion,” Manchin told reporters after the meeting with Sinema, White House domestic policy adviser Susan Rice and senior adviser Brian Deese.

But pressed if that agreement was possible on Thursday night, as Democratic leaders had hoped, he added: “I don’t see a deal tonight. I really don’t.”

Manchin’s comments are a blow to the hopes of Democratic leadership, who wanted to try to work out an agreement on the reconciliation package that would convince progressives to support a quick vote on the Senate-passed bipartisan infrastructure bill.

Democratic leadership and the White House is trying to defang a standoff in the House, where progressives are threatening to vote down the Senate’s roughly $1 trillion infrastructure bill.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and a group of House moderates had agreed to bring up the Senate bill by Monday, but Pelosi then delayed that until Thursday in order to buy more time to work out an agreement.

But the hours of behind-the-scenes haggling have yet to clinch a deal. Sinema and Manchin both left the Capitol after the meeting with White House officials.

Rice and Deese then went briefly to Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) office, before going back to Pelosi’s office.

Manchin didn’t give reporters a hard timeline for coming up to an agreement, except that he hoped that it was “soon.”

“I mean we’re working as hard as we can. … No one’s given up,” he added.

But House progressives have been dug in against supporting the Senate-passed infrastructure bill and vowed throughout Thursday that they had the votes to sink it if Pelosi brings it to the floor.

House Democratic leadership initially pushed votes until 9 p.m., then 10 p.m., and around 9:40 p.m. Pelosi sent a letter to her caucus but didn’t give an update on the schedule for the night.

“Discussions continue with the House, Senate and White House to reach a bicameral framework agreement to Build Back Better through a reconciliation bill,” she wrote.