After months of negotiations, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. said he won't vote for the Build Back Better Act. He was a key senate vote. Texas Democrats don't believe this is over.
“Senator Manchin's state needs a lot of these things a lot worse than other states do. I think that you are going to see things that are in Build Back Better survive,” said Congressman Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth.
Democrats will now have to hammer out what comes next.
“Lowering the costs of health care, lowering the cost of prescription drugs, and child care, in particular, should be the focus because those are the areas that I think are going to allow us during this pandemic and getting out of the pandemic hopefully, to get folks back to work,” said Congressman Colin Allred, D-Dallas.
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Getting Democrats to agree on what was in the bill, and how to pass it, was not easy.
Progressives wanted Build Back Better passed in tandem with the infrastructure plan. But in the end, most voted for the plan for roads, bridges, transportation and broadband internet anyway. Moderate Democrats and progressives had to come to agreements during negotiations, and the bill stalled several times.
“We have got a lot of different personalities and we don't have a lot of room to spare in terms of losing any votes and so any time you are trying to work on a large piece of legislation you can have some back and forth. But we are agreed on the values, and I think that is the most important thing,” added Congressman Allred.
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“I don't think there are going to be any sort of issues. We have our eyes on the ball. We know what we have to do between now and election day,” added Congressman Veasey.
