President Joe Biden on Wednesday met with key House and Senate Democrats as the White House and Congressional leadership are working to bridge the divide between key factions of the party ahead of crucial deadlines for the commander-in-chief’s domestic agenda.

What You Need To Know

  • President Joe Biden on Wednesday met with key House and Senate Democrats ahead of crucial deadlines for his domestic agenda

  • In a series of meetings, Biden met with Congressional Democratic leadership and key moderates and progressives to try and bridge the divide on his two top legislative priorities: A $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill that already passed the Senate, and a $3.5 social and climate-focused bill that can be passed solely by Democrats

  • Centrist Democrats support the slimmer bill but have raised concerns about the larger bill, but progressives will only support the bipartisan infrastructure bill if the budget bill is passed

  • This showdown comes as the House passed a bill to avert a government shutdown and suspend the debt limit on Tuesday night, with every Democrat voting in favor and every Republican opposed 

In a series of meetings, Biden met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., as well as several other key members on both sides of the ideological divide: Progressives, such as Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the chair of the chamber’s Budget Committee, and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus; and moderates, including Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va, and Kirsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J.

Other lawmakers that attendedmeetings Wednesday, according to the White House, include Florida Rep. Stephanie Murphy, California Rep. Mike Thompson, Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, Montana Sen. Jon Tester, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, who heads the Finance Committee, and Washington Sen. Patty Murray, a key member of party leadership.

Biden held three separate meetings: First, with leadership, Pelosi and Schumer; Next, an afternoon session largerly featuring moderates, including Manchin, Sinema and Gottheimer, as well as Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H. and Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and others; And, finally, an evening meeting with progressives Sanders and Jayapal, as well as Sens. Wyden, Murray, Cory Booker, D-N.J. and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and Reps. Katherine Clark, D-Mass., Jim McGovern, D-Mass., Barbara Lee, D-Calif., and Mark Pocan, D-Wisc.

Following the White House meeting, Rep. Murphy, a key moderate, told reporters that "my expectation is that we will have the infrastructure vote on Monday," seemingly signaling some progress.

"The agreement is that focusing on top-line numbers is misplaced," Murphy added, noting that there was not a top-line number that was agreed upon following her meeting.

Murphy said that the budget bill "needs to be more precisely targeted. ... how long it takes, there’s not a set timeline for that," adding: "We should take all the time that is necessary"

"When you are talking about a bill that touches on all American lives, we need to take the time necessary to ensure it achieves the goal it is intended," she said of the bill's timeline.

The Florida lawmaker said that it was "critically important" for Democrats to work together on these matters because "it is a national security imperative and democracy imperative for Democrats to remain in control of Congress after Republicans' behavior after Jan. 6th."

In addition, the White House said, Cedric Richmond, Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement and the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, will hosted a meeting about Biden's agenda with the Circle of Protection, a diverse coalition of Christian denominations, specificall highlighting its investments in anti-poverty initiatives and programs that support children and families.

The meetings at the White House come at a pivotal juncture for Biden’s $3.5 trillion package as lawmakers struggle to draft the ambitious effort. With Republicans solidly opposed, Democratic leaders are counting on the president to galvanize consensus between progressives and centrists in their party.

The House faces a deadline Monday to vote on the first part of Biden’s plan — a nearly $1 trillion public works measure that was already approved by the Senate but has become tangled in disputes over the broader package.

Moderate Democrats support the slimmer bill but have raised concerns about Biden’s broader vision — which entails revamping federal taxes and spending to make what the president views as overdue investments in health care, family services and efforts to fight climate change.

Speaker Pelosi has promised centrists a vote on the more modest $1 trillion public works package. That bill of roads, broadband and public water projects enjoys bipartisan Senate support and should easily pass the House even with growing House Republican opposition, but has become sidelined by the bigger debate.

“I’m confident we’ll have the votes,” Rep. Gottheimer, a leader of the centrist coalition, said.

But progressive lawmakers view the public works bill as inadequate and plan to vote against it unless it is considered alongside the bigger Biden package. Some 50 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus say they plan to vote against the bipartisan measure.

The $3.5 trillion package would impose tax hikes on corporations and wealthy Americans earning more than $400,000 a year and plow that money back into federal programs for young and old.

Rep. Jayapal emerged from an hour-long meeting with Pelosi late Tuesday saying its position had not changed and the two bills must move “in tandem” to win the progressive votes. Jayapal also attended the meeting with Biden.

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a leading progressive in the chamber, released a statement with 10 other Democratic senators saying that the two bills must be passed in tandem.

"We voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill with the clear commitment that the two pieces of the package would move together along a dual track," the lawmakers wrote in the statement. "Abandoning the $3.5 trillion Build Back Better act and passing the infrastructure bill first would be in violation of that agreement.

Warren was joined by Sens. Sanders, Booker, Schatz, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Alex Padilla of California, Tina Smith of Minneota and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.

"Now is the time to pass both of these major pieces of legislation," the group wrote, underscoring the importance of both measures. "We have no time to wase."

Publicly, the White House has remained confident both bills will pass, and Democratic leaders are pushing ahead as they draft the details.

Tensions are high as the Biden agenda is a key campaign promise not only from the president but most of the the Democratic lawmakers, including those in the House who face re-election next year.

All this as the House and Senate are at a standstill over a separate package to keep the government funded past the Sept. 30 fiscal yearend and suspend the federal debt limit to avert what could be a devastating U.S. default on payments.

The government faces a shutdown if funding stops on Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year. Additionally, at some point in October the U.S. risks defaulting on its accumulated debt load if its borrowing limits are not waived or adjusted.

Rushing to prevent that dire outcome, the Democratic-led House passed the funding-and-debt measure Tuesday night, without a single vote of Republican support.

Republicans are refusing to give their support in the Senate, despite the risk of triggering a fiscal crisis.

“Our country will suffer greatly if we do not act now to stave off this unnecessary and preventable crisis,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. 

The Biden administration has sent intermediaries, including former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, to meet with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

But McConnell said since Democrats control the White House and Congress, it’s their problem to find the votes — though he had relied on bipartisan cooperation to approve debt limit measures when Republicans were in charge.

“The debt ceiling will be raised as it always should be, but it will be raised by the Democrats,” the Republican leader said.

The measure approved Tuesday night would provide stopgap money to keep the government funded to Dec. 3 and extend borrowing authority through the end of 2022. It includes $28.6 billion in disaster relief for the aftermath of Hurricane Ida and other extreme weather events, and $6.3 billion to support Afghanistan evacuees in the fallout from the end of the 20-year war.

In the 50-50 Senate, Democrats will be hard-pressed to find 10 Republicans to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a filibuster.

The Treasury Department has been using “extraordinary measures” to fund the government since the last debt limit suspension expired July 31, and projects that at some point next month it will run out of cash reserves. That could force the Treasury to delay or miss payments.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.