- House Democrats passed Biden's $2 trillion social spending bill Friday morning.
- Democratic infighting nearly killed the legislation multiple times, then an eight-hour speech by GOP leader Kevin McCarthy prevented a Thursday night vote.
- Now it heads to the Senate, where Joe Manchin could still delay the bill — or tank it completely.
House Democrats passed a $2 trillion social spending bill carrying the bulk of President Joe Biden's economic agenda on Friday morning, barreling past united GOP opposition and sending it to the Senate. But it still faces major changes in the upper chamber due to objections from Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia over the bill's scope.
The legislation cleared the chamber a near-party line vote of 220-213. After a handful of centrist Democrats in the House threatened to vote against it throughout the fall, only one joined GOP ranks in voting no: Rep. Jared Golden of Maine.
It put Democrats another step closer to fulfilling Biden's pledge to recast the federal government's role in people's lives after the COVID-19 pandemic devastated the economy. Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California hailed passage of the Build Back Better Act, saying it will form "the pillar of health and financial security in America."
"It will be historic in forging landmark progress for our nation," she said in a floor speech ahead of the vote. The president also lauded the progress on a critical piece of his agenda after most House Democrats and some GOP lawmakers approved the infrastructure bill earlier this month.
"For the second time in just two weeks, the House of Representatives has moved on critical and consequential pieces of my legislative agenda," Biden said in a statement. "Now, the Build Back Better Act goes to the United States Senate, where I look forward to it passing as soon as possible so I can sign it into law."
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York pledged to take up the bill within the next month with the goal of approving it by Christmas. It would then travel back to the House once more for final passage before landing on Biden's desk.
After months of delays, an eight-hour speech stalled the bill one more night
Democrats had intended to swiftly approve the bill on Thursday evening after months of intraparty feuds. But House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California upended that timetable with an erratic eight-hour speech that variously touched on Tesla CEO Elon Musk, China, and America's withdrawal from Afghanistan.
McCarthy characterized the Biden bill as a partisan boondoggle that would swell the federal deficit. "Every page of all this new Washington spending supports more waste, fraud, abuse, and corruption," he said. "This bill is wrong on the merits."
McCarthy's stalling tactics amounted to a fleeting stretch of obstruction. It deeply frustrated Democrats who jeered him on the floor and trashed him afterwards. He ultimately broke a record that Pelosi once held for the longest speech in House history.
At one point, McCarthy argued that Americans didn't elect Biden to act like another FDR, the legendary president whose New Deal strengthened the social safety net during the Great Depression. It prompted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York to shout, "I did!"
Friday's sprawling bill is designed to affect most aspects of American life. It would set up universal pre-K for three and four-year olds and renew monthly cash payments to the vast majority of American families for another year. It would expand Medicare to cover hearing services, enact four weeks of paid family and medical leave, establish federal prescription-drug price controls and provide child-care subsidies. It would also renew federal subsidies so people can buy health insurance from the Obamacare exchanges.
The bill would be paid for with a bevy of tax hikes on the rich and large firms currently paying little or zero in federal taxes, including a corporate minimum tax and a new surtax on multimillionaires.
Manchin remains a wild card
The legislation now faces an uncertain future in the Senate, where Democrats need all 50 senators to give a thumbs-up. Manchin hasn't committed to backing the bill yet, and could still delay or sink it in the weeks to come.
The House broke a summer-long deadlock of blown deadlines that stretched well into fall after new data from the Congressional Budget Office swung a group of centrists to support the bill. In that data, the CBO found the bill would grow the federal deficit by $367 billion. But its projection didn't factor in revenue gained from stepped-up IRS enforcement, a key source for new money within the measure.
That estimate is less growth to the deficit than under Biden's infrastructure package focused on roads and bridges, a bipartisan, less contested bill that he signed into law on Monday.
The bill — once pegged at a cost of $3.5 trillion — endured several near-death experiences thanks to Democrats' tiny three-seat majority in the House. In August, House centrists jeopardized its passage by demanding a separate vote on the infrastructure package focused on roads and bridges.
House progressives balked and used the infrastructure bill as leverage to prod the centrists into backing the social spending bill. Liberals relented late last month once Biden and centrists assured them the follow-up bill would pass, clearing the road-and-bridges legislation's path to Biden's desk on November 6.
As it heads to the Senate, Manchin has repeatedly warned about the prospect of the bill contributing to rising prices across the board. But economists say the inflationary impact will be limited since it's mostly financed.
He's also opposed to the paid leave program, arguing it doesn't belong in the party-line spending bill. Another area of Democratic unease includes an increase in state and local taxes people can deduct from their tax bills.
Democrats must juggle other deadlines as well, including an extension of government funding that expires on December 3 and extending the US's ability to repay its bills sometime next month.