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President Biden acknowledged that his Build Back Better plan may not ever pass in Congress, but expressed optimism that some parts of the legislation could still make it into law.
“I’m confident we can get pieces, big chunks, of the Build Back Better law signed into law,” Biden said during a Wednesday press conference.
President Biden. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images) (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
Biden’s comments come as he has suffered multiple legislative failures in recent weeks, in large part due to resistance from lawmakers within his own party.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-WVa., announced last month that he would not support Biden’s Build Back Better legislation, a cornerstone of the president’s agenda that the West Virginia lawmaker said was too expensive to earn his support.
“I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation,” Manchin said at the time. “There’s a lot of good, but that bill is a mammoth piece of legislation.”
Sen. Joe Manchin. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Manchin also stands in the way of Biden’s plan to overhaul the U.S. election system. He and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., are refusing to budge to a carve out of the legislative filibuster that would allow the legislation to come to the Senate floor for a vote.
“The majority of my colleagues in the Democrat caucus, they changed. They change their minds,” Manchin said Tuesday. “I respect that. You have a right to change your mind. I haven’t. I hope they respect that too. I’ve never changed my mind on the filibuster.”
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U.S. President Joe Biden (Ken Cedeno/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
But Biden and Manchin also agreed to continue talks on Build Back Better in 2022, perhaps giving the president a reason for optimism that some parts of his legislative agenda can pass through Congress.
“The best days of this country are still ahead of us, not behind us,” Biden said.
