The White House has turned its energy and attention this week toward getting President Joe Biden’s sweeping domestic agenda through Congress, with just days to go before a potential government shutdown, negotiations continuing over a Democratic reconciliation package and a vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill scheduled for Thursday.

What You Need To Know

  • The White House has turned its energy and attention this week toward getting President Joe Biden’s sweeping domestic agenda through Congress

  • President Biden on Monday promised multiple meetings with lawmakers over the coming hours and days and said he was optimistic about working out the details

  • The smaller infrastructure bill is scheduled for a vote Thursday, but the larger $3.5 trillion proposal is still in the works, and progressive Democrats want to vote for them together

  • The White House on Monday also highlighted several recent polls that show support for the bills among Americans, including some Republicans

President Biden on Monday promised multiple meetings with lawmakers over the coming hours and days as the White House also pointed to polling across the U.S. that showed Amercians support many of his proposals.

“You know me, I’m a born optimist,” the president said Monday after getting his COVID-19 booster shot. “I think we're going to get it done. Ihave meetings tonight, tomorrow and for the next little bit.”

“Victory is at stake,” he added.

Highlighting the popularity of the president’s agenda, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said: “This is what the American people want: roads, rails, bridges.”

“People want improvements to child care, they want their costs cut, they want the tax system more fair,” she added. “What we're trying to do is hard. The president knows that nothing is guaranteed.”

The president also admitted earlier Monday that every part of his agenda may not be wrapped up on Capitol Hill by the end of this week despite his efforts. 

The House is set to vote on the smaller Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act on Thursday. The Senate first approved that bill after it was negotiated in collaboration with the White House.

But the details of the other, larger piece of the president’s agenda — the $3.5 trillion proposal that includes things like free community college, climate change provisions and an extension of the child tax credit — are still being hashed out.

Progressive lawmakers have said they will not vote for the infrastructure piece without a vote on the more sweeping legislation, the Build Back Better Act, and Democratic leadership has linked them together.

“We made a deal,” wrote Rep. Cori Bush, D-MO, on Twitter Monday afternoon. “I will not support it without first passing the Build Back Better Act.”

That’s where the president comes in to close the gap, as he began to do with in-person meetings last Wednesday: one with Democratic leadership, one with moderates and one with progressives.

“It may not be by the end of the week. I hope it’s by the end of the week,” President Biden said.

In a memo released Monday, the White House called attention to new polls they said were “overwhelming” evidence of support for President Biden’s proposals among Americans across the country.

“As we enter the final phase of legislative negotiations over the President’s economic package, the evidence is overwhelming that the wind is at our backs and the public is eager for both of these packages to become law,” the memo read.

They included one poll from Navigator Research estimating that 66% of registered voters support the Build Back Better agenda, when asked about elements such as paid family leave, expanded Medicare coverage and universal pre-K.

In that poll, 39% of Republicans and 62% of independents joined 93% of Democrats who support the agenda.

Another survey from Fox News found that a lower 56% of registered voters support the $3.5 trillion proposal.

The most recent poll on the other, bipartisan infrastructure bill from Pew Research found that about half of more than 10,000 adults surveyed — or 51% — supported that smaller legislation.

Still, as Washington inches toward Thursday’s vote on the infrastructure bill, it’s unclear whether the larger piece will be ready by then.

“It’s a heavy lift,” said Sen. Joe Manchin, D- W.Va. “There's a lot in that bill, the 3.5 reconciliation bill: tax codes, climate change, social reforms. There’s a lot, and people need to know what's in it. So it's going to take a while.” 

In the meantime, Democrats must pass a short term spending bill to keep the government open past Thursday, since Sep. 30 also marks the end of the fiscal year.