Most on Capitol Hill know House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is going to need every vote he can get from both parties in Washington, D.C., to pass the divisive spending deal he struck with White House negotiators over the weekend in exchange for a guarantee to avert the government's first-ever default on the federal debt.
The deal, which imposes work requirements on some social safety net programs as well as strict limits on spending, has already drawn its share of critics from both sides of the aisle, leaving McCarthy, a California Republican, to find a plurality of Democrats and Republicans willing to support the deal.
But with a vote on the deal likely coming this week, McCarthy can rest assured he'll have the likely support of at least one Senate Democrat once the Republican-backed legislation comes to their side of the building.
In addition to a litany of concessions from the White House on spending, McCarthy's team inserted a provision to allow the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) that runs between Virginia and North Carolina, a long-sought project for Senator Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat.
Manchin previously sought to insert the $6.6 billion natural gas pipeline into a federal spending bill last fall before withdrawing it amid some consternation from liberal colleagues as well as environmental groups, who claimed the pipeline's initial approval by Trump administration officials was illegal. The approvals were quickly overturned in federal court, leading construction to be halted until the Biden administration made a decision on its future.
The new deal between Republicans and the White House, however, revives the proposal, and includes language to prevent a similar hang-up in the courts—giving Manchin a victory ahead of a contentious 2024 election cycle against Jim Justice, West Virginia's Republican governor who is seen by many as one of the most significant threats to Democrats' narrow majority in the Senate. Last month, Justice, 72, filed paperwork to win over Manchin's Senate seat.
But the provision is also a win for McCarthy, who needs the West Virginia Democrat's help in a big way to get his deal through. Manchin, arguably among the most conservative Democrats in Congress, is a regular swing vote in the narrowly-divided Senate, and will likely play a crucial role in getting McCarthy's deal past Republican hardliners who have already expressed discontent with the deal.
"I am pleased Speaker McCarthy and his leadership team see the tremendous value in completing the MVP to increase domestic energy production and drive down costs across America and especially in West Virginia," Manchin said in a statement on his website on Monday. "I am proud to have fought for this critical project and to have secured the bipartisan support necessary to get it across the finish line."
Newsweek has reached out to Manchin's office via email for comment.
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Nick Reynolds is a senior politics reporter at Newsweek. A native of Central New York, he previously worked as a ... Read more
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