see the light at the end of the tunnel. and we see the ability for democrats to get this done. hearing from him directly was really good for the entire caucus, and i think that like now we can go and do some work and see what we can come up with. the house needs to get this done. he pointed out that there were two members of the senate that have not yet subscribed of the full package and simultaneously he talked about the value of the package. and how we can t miss this opportunity. i think he reassured everybody. i ve got to tell you, been around a long time. i thought it was really good. been around a long time, i thought it was really good. congressman richie neal, and the president all basically singing from the same hymnal, feeling good, moving forward, both the large build back better legislation and the smaller roads and bridges bill will pass, not clear when. and the larger bill may have to get smaller. nbc news is reporting tonight that inside the meeting president biden
of the entire caucus right now, this lawmakers said that biden told her keep hope alive and as i was talking to members of both moderate caucuses and progressive caucuses it s clear that there is an optimism here, a reenergizing from hearing from the president himself. that s not to say that there aren t moderates who are upset. congresswoman stephanie murphy for example continuing to reiterate that in her view these bills are delinked and that she s only going to consider each on their own merits. at the same time, though, what i ve heard from progressives is that they feel bolstered by the fact that they have been clear in their demands from the beginning, that they want to have reconciliation in tandem with the bipartisan infrastructure bill and as they huddled tonight and i caught up with them after, what they re doing now is figuring out the policy piece of this. not the price tag, and that s the focus for them. the shifting this conversation away from whether it s $2 trillion or
it would help people, how we can make sure the program is effective and makes the best use of tax dollars that it can. this is what it looks like when congress does its job. i think, as you mentioned, it s been a while since we ve seen congress really take the time and debate, go back and forth, have those negotiations, and they re multi-party negotiations to your point. it isn t that we re all 500 are not in the room together. we re having multiple conversations but everybody is very, very fortunate to be guided by president biden here who has set out a clear agenda that has the support of the vast majority of americans regardless of political party. are there red lines in here, places where you and your progressive colleagues will not go? are there places that your moderate colleagues will not go or have we what sounded like came out of that meeting in washington at the capital is that we re going to work to get to something. it may take a my more days but we re going to work to
thursday, september 30th legislative day even though as the earth outside its windows continued to turn on its axis into friday, october 1st, a parallel universe, if you will, existed at the united states congress. you knew nancy pelosi had many powers but you didn t realize she could actually control time. but as extraordinarily long as that thursday was, and as it comes to an end, and as capitol hill joins the rest of us, here in the month of october, we know one thing. the vote on that roads and bridges bill that speaker pelosi was holding the floor open for tonight and through most of today, well that vote s not happening. certainly not tonight. and not this weekend either. remember what this bill is. it s the small piece of president biden s legislative agenda, the roads and bridges part, the stuff you used to call infrastructure. the vast, vast majority of democrats on capitol hill want to pass all of biden s agenda
negotiations when kyrsten sinema says the bill is too high. when joe manchin starts talking about inflation and he won t pay that much money. real negotiations when somebody says what do you not like in here or is it progressives dealing nancy pelosi and the white house, we need this bill passed, versus moderates telling the white house and nancy pelosi we need this passed. are we actually whittling this down into something that everybody will support? progress is definitely being made, and i think you heard that in the president s tone today when he talked about hope, he talked about we re going to get it done and i think everybody regardless of their particular view left the room feeling like this was going to be a positive forward going negotiation, and i think where wee really are starting to make progress, as you said, is moving away from, you know, vague kind of general objections, to very specifics, to talking about exactly what this program would do, how fast