Biden lands in Rome to meet the Pope after failing to clinch infrastructure deal

As congressional leaders work to nail down a vote on his landmark Build Back Better agenda, President Biden and First Lady Jill touched down in Rome at 2:30 am local time ahead of a whirlwind European tour that includes meeting the pope for the fourth time. 

The trip was delayed as negotiations came down to the wire, but Biden announced the deal for his now-$1.75T social and climate spending bill just ahead of the trip. The president had planned to leave for Rome early Thursday, but did not head out until the afternoon as he spent the morning on Capitol Hill negotiating with leaders in Congress. 

The House had initially planned to hold a vote on the $1.2T bipartisan infrastructure bill before Biden touched down in Europe, but those plans were sidelined until next week as progressives reassured they would only vote for that bill in tandem with the larger spending package.

Instead, the House passed a temporary extension of surface transportation funding that lasts until Dec. 3. 

But even the leader of the House Progressive Caucus, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., seemed optimistic Thursday night that Congress would pass both bills next week. 

Biden, a lifelong Catholic, will have an audience with Pope Francis. Their meeting was initially supposed to be broadcast live, but on Thursday the Vatican announced it would now be behind closed doors, drawing frustrations from White House- and Vatican-accredited journalists.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said the revised plan reflected the 'normal procedure' established during the coronavirus pandemic for all visiting heads of state or government.

Biden will then meet with his Italian counterparts, including President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Mario Draghi. 

Biden will also convene with French President Emanuel Macron on Friday, their first face-to-face meeting since the AUKUS submarine deal between the US, UK and Australia that roiled the French. 

Over the weekend, Biden will attend G-20 events to discuss the international economy and international issues. He will likely hold meetings with other world leaders to discuss supply chain issues, energy prices and the Iranian nuclear program, according to national security adviser Jake Sullivan. 

They are also likely to discuss implementation of the global minimum tax, which G7 finance ministers worked out back in June. Earlier this month, 136 countries agreed to set up a global minimum corporate tax rate of 15%, to be imposed by 2023. 

The president will then head to Glasgow, Scotland for the COP26, a United Nations climate summit, where he'll likely face questions about his Build Back Better plan and its climate provisions. The framework of the $1.75T social and climate bill now includes $500 billion in climate provisions. 

The president had said he hoped to have a deal in hand before he showed up to the UN climate conference, but White House officials played down the need to have an actual vote by that time, arguing that world leaders would understand the legislation was in its home stretch. 

'I don't think that world leaders will look at this as a binary issue. Is it done? Is it not done? They'll say: Is President Biden on track to deliver on what he said? He's going to deliver and we believe one way or the other he will be on track to do that,' Sullivan said Tuesday. 

Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was forced to ditch plans to hold a House vote on a bipartisan infrastructure bill Thursday evening after a group of House progressive Democrats refused to back the legislation that is a priority for President Biden.

Pelosi had had told lawmakers to prepare for a possible vote, and amid tense negotiations with progressives, who are demanding to read the fine print of Biden's new 'framework' for his $1.75 trillion Build Back Better plan – as well as get further assurances that it can pass the Senate.

'These two bills need to go together,' said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, leader of the House progressive Caucus.

Instead, House leaders scheduled a bill to extend expiring transportation funding – which had been an impetus for acting on infrastructure – as the last vote of the week. 

Pelosi punted after Biden gave one more speech selling his pared back Build Back Better plan Thursday shortly before his scheduled trip to Europe – touting the virtue of compromise and calling a new framework 'historic.'

Biden had hoped to have a win in hand by the time he landed. Instead, he has the same 'framework' he pitched to lawmakers. It includes more than $500 billion in climate programs he can tout in a meeting with the Pope and in climate meetings in Scotland – but like the infrastructure bill, they will not have become law. 

Even with no deal in hand, there were developments for Biden to cling to. Jayapal on CNN pointed to the 'overwhelming endorsement' her caucus gave to Biden's slimmed-back framework. She called it 'really significant' because 'there are many things in there that we did not get.' 

In his remarks before leaving the country, Biden did not say for certain he had a deal that could clear Congress – and spent much of his more than 20 minute speech selling components of the framework that did not yet have a clear path to enactment.   

'After months of tough and thoughtful negotiations I think we have an historic – I know we have – an historic economic framework,' Biden told reporters from the East Room of the White House after delaying his planned departure for Rome. 

'We spent hours and hours over months and months working on this,' he said. 'No one got everything they wanted, included me.'

It was a reference to major policy provisions he had to jettison to try to keep costs under a lower ceiling amid centrist opposition in the Senate. 

He did not say the plan has the support of a pair of key Senate Democratic holdouts – and at the end of his remarks he ignored questions about Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, two lawmakers who hold the fate of the package in their hands.

'I'll see you in Italy and in Scotland. Thank you,' Biden told reporters, without taking questions. 

Biden pointed to the compromises Democrats have sought to make to reach a deal – without yet finding something that 50 Senate Democrats have committed to backing, let along the House majority.

'I know deeply people feel about the things that they fight for. But this framework includes historic investments in our nation and our people,' Biden said.

Without a victory in hand, Biden nevertheless crowed about the framework, and gave a defense of compromising after holding countless meetings with factions and leaders.

'I want to thank my colleagues in the Congress and the leadership. We spent hours and hours and hours over months and months working on this,' he said. 'No one got everything they wanted, including me. But that's what compromise is. That's consensus. That's what I ran on.'

'I've long said compromise and consensus are the only way you get big things done in a democracy. Important things done for the country. I know it's hard. I know deeply people feel about the things that they fight for. But this framework includes historic investments in our nation and in our people,' said Biden.

In his remarks, Biden also pointed to his own 2020 victory, where he pitched many of the ideas in the package, including funds for child care, climate change, and help for families with aging parents or young children.

'I campaigned on them. And the American people spoke. This agenda, the agenda that's in these bills, is what 81 million Americans voted for,' Biden said. 'Their voices deserve to be heard, not denied, or worse ignored.'

Without action 'we risk losing our edge as a nation,' Biden said.

'This is about competitiveness versus complacency. It's about leading the world or letting the world pass us by.'

He pointed out key provisions, including: an expanded child tax credit for families; funds for 500,000 electric vehicle charge stations; funds to cap oil leaks and methane wells; aide for people with elderly parents; pre-K funding; and tax provisions to target the wealthy.  

'All I'm asking is pay your fair share. Pay your fair share. Pay your fair share,' he said.

Biden repeated past statements that the package won't add to the deficit – after negotiators scrambled to assemble a series of new pay-fors, including some that emerged only in recent days.

'It will not add to the deficit at all. It will react to reduce the deficit, according to the economists,' Biden said.

Biden cited '17 Nobel prize winners in economics said it will lower the inflationary pressures on the economy.'

'Ive said before these plans are fiscally responsible. They're fully paid for. They don't add a single penny to the deficit. They don't raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 a year.'

The bill includes nearly $2 trillion in revenue raisers, and assumes $400 billion in savings from beefed up IRS enforcement alone. One new tax provision would provide a 5 per cent surtax on income of more than $10 million.

According to the White House the revenue-raising provisions would cancel out the new social spending and climate programs. The framework does not yet have bill language – and congressional scorekeepers cannot provide an estimate until that happens.

Biden's praise for the Build Back Better package came as a separate bipartisan infrastructure deal was also under threat.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi told her lieutenants to prepare for a floor vote Thursday. But without assurances on the social programs in the reconciliation bill, progressives appeared willing to bolt.

'Hell no on BIF' – the infrastructure bill – said Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, as a number of fellow progressives indicated they wouldn't vote for it.