Is President Biden’s Build Back Better bill dead and forgotten?
Officially introduced in the House of Representatives last September, the legislation, with an initial $3.5 trillion price tag, was one of the most comprehensive packages ever tackled by lawmakers, embracing a wide variety of infrastructure, social service, and welfare initiatives.
That original legislation proposed up to $150 billion in new housing funding, along with $555 billion for clean energy and climate change initiatives, and $400 billion for preschool childcare programs.
Although the cost of the legislation, as a result of talks between Congressional leaders and the White House, was eventually lowered to $2.2 trillion, chances for passage appeared nil after West Virginia Senator John Manchin late last year said the bill was still too expensive and withdrew his support.
Manchin said he decided against the legislation after reading a report from the Congressional Budget Office. That report, he said, “determined that the cost is upwards of $4.5 trillion, which is more than double what the bill’s ardent supporters have claimed.”
In a Senate divided by 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans, Manchin’s decision was regarded as effectively ending any chance to pass the Build Back Better legislation.
“The further we get from enactment, the worst the legislation’s extra flab looks,” reported the Washington Post after Manchin’s decision, adding that “large chunks of the bill were wasteful and contributed to once-in-a-generation inflation.”
But in the immediate aftermath of Manchin’s announcement, the Economist speculated that the White House would have “little incentive to admit defeat. Instead, it may try to do yet another wholesale rewrite of Build Back Better, jettisoning its current framework, in the hopes of saving face.”
Other sources are reporting that the efforts to resuscitate Build Back Better are already underway. Notes Politico: Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer and other Democrats are “continuing to quietly discuss possibilities for a new bill and are not giving up on finding a way to bring Manchin on board.”
Speaking to reporters last week, White House press secretary Jen Psaki acknowledged that “discussions are ongoing” regarding the possibility of re-introducing Build Back Better in the weeks to come.
Those discussions, she added, “are happening between members on the Hill to determine what they can have support for. And our staff and senior members of the team are engaged in those as well.”
By Garry Boulard
