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Democratic leaders, moderates and progressives headed to the White House at critical moment for the Biden agenda
CNN
President Joe Biden is ramping up his outreach to a wide swath of key Democrats in the House and Senate on Wednesday, hosting multiple groups including leadership, progressives and moderates from both chambers at a key moment for his economic agenda.
In a series of meetings starting mid-afternoon, Biden -- a 36-year veteran of Capitol Hill -- will be using his experience in the Senate as he seeks to get his party aligned as the future of his top priorities hangs in the balance. The meetings mark his most expansive in-person engagement with members of Congress in his presidency and underscore how critical the White House views the coming days.
It comes as Democratic leaders are grappling with real and intractable divides over key aspects of Biden's efforts to transform the social safety net. Progressives have maintained that they will not vote for the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which passed the Senate in August, until the broader, $3.5 trillion economic agenda is passed.
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Over the past 10 days, Vice President JD Vance put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on notice, rattled the confidence of century-old allies in Western Europe during his first foreign trip, decamped to Capitol Hill to help in delicate budget talks and delivered a spirited defense of the Trump administration’s first month to a gathering of conservatives outside the nation’s capital.