Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced Monday morning that he has tested positive for COVID and will not be coming to Washington this week. The announcement could derail any last hope President Joe Biden had of getting major legislation done before the midterm elections.
Last week, Manchin had suggested there was a possibility he would help Democrats advance reconciliation legislation before the end of July. With Manchin in West Virginia this week, those hopes are gone.
There still is some time for Democrats to come to an agreement. Manchin seems open to a deal that would extend Affordable Care Act subsidies that were expanded in Biden’s March COVID stimulus bill. There also appears to be agreement to allow Medicare to set drug prices.
But Democrats face a hard deadline of Sept. 30, 2022, to get a reconciliation bill passed through both chambers of Congress. At that point, the fiscal year will end, and Democrats will have to go through the laborious process of passing brand new reconciliation instructions. Reconciliation is the only way Democrats can bypass Senate rules requiring 60 votes to end debate on any legislation.
This would seem to leave Democrats a solid eight weeks in August and September to get a reconciliation bill done, but the Senate is set to go on vacation from Aug. 8 through Sept. 5. This means that if the Senate fails to reach a deal next week, they will have just three full weeks to get a deal done when they return to work in September.
Of course, the Democrats could cancel their August recess and stay in Washington to get the job done, but if you’ve ever stood between a United States senator and an airplane leaving for August recess, you know that is very unlikely to happen.
