Manchin, Sanders at odds over $3.5 trillion budget resolution
Written by ABC AUDIO on September 12, 2021
(NEW YORK) — Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., reiterated his call on Sunday for a strategic pause on the $3.5 trillion budget resolution, while Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., doubled down on the need to pass both the bipartisan infrastructure and budget reconciliation bills.
“The urgency — I can’t understand why we can’t take time to deliberate on this and work,” Manchin told ABC “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos.
In an interview that followed, Sanders told Stephanopoulos that he believes both bills will be passed.
“I think we’re gonna work it out, but it would really be a terrible, terrible shame for the American people if both bills went down,” Sanders said.
Manchin on Thursday wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal calling for a “strategic pause” on the budget resolution Democrats took the first step in passing last month. Debate continues over the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, with some Democrats threatening to hold up the bipartisan infrastructure bill on the passage of the reconciliation package.
The Senate returns on Monday and the tentative deadline for Senate committees to turn in their draft legislation to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sanders, the Budget Committee chairman, is Wednesday.
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