President Biden is closing in on a legacy-defining win in Congress with the passage of a climate and health care bill in the Senate, a process officials say was not just months, but years in the making.
While hopes of passing Biden's agenda appeared dead just a few weeks ago, the president and White House officials quietly worked behind the scenes to help revive talks and ultimately get negotiations in the Senate over the finish line, an administration official said.
Over the weekend, while the Senate was working through a very long series of votes to approve the package, Biden called roughly a dozen senators and called the cloak room, an administration source told The Hill. The White House legislative team also delivered White House cookies to members on Sunday.
That followed several months of engagement between senior White House aides and Capitol Hill to get the reconciliation deal passed.
Senate Democrats on Sunday voted to pass a $740 billion bill that would raise taxes on corporations, tackle climate change, lower prescription drug costs and reduce the federal deficit. Vice President Harris broke the 50-50 tie to send the bill to the House for a vote, where it only needs a simple majority to pass and be sent to Biden's desk.
The bill is a smaller version of Biden's "Build Back Better" plan he proposed in the fall of 2021, lacking funds for child care and elder care programs and certain tax code changes. Talks over that $2 trillion package stalled when Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said in December 2021 he would not support it.
Read more here.
And check out The Hill's full breakdown of what's in the bill.
Meanwhile: A group of GOP physicians in Congress warn that they think the new legislation will impact patient care.
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