The speech will take place at 12:30 pm ET in the State Dining Room, the White House said.
Schumer and Manchin announced the deal Wednesday after more than a year of roller-coaster negotiations. The deal is a major investment for Manchin, and the health and climate bill has a strong chance of becoming law as soon as August, assuming Democrats can pass the bill in the Chamber and that it be approved with the parliamentarian of the Senate to allow it. it will be approved in a straight party line in the budget process.
The agreement contains a number of goals of the Democrats. While many details have not been released, the measure would invest $369 billion in energy and climate change programs, with the goal of reducing carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030, according to a fact sheet of a page. For the first time, Medicare would be empowered to negotiate the prices of certain drugs and cap out-of-pocket costs at $2,000 for enrollees in Medicare drug plans. It would also extend for three years the enhanced subsidies for Affordable Care Act coverage.
On a local radio show Thursday, Manchin argued the bill should be well received by both parties, saying it “truly” didn’t raise taxes and didn’t raise inflation, while creating good energy policy.
“This is a bill for the country,” Manchin said. “It’s not a bill for Democrats. And it’s not a bill that Republicans need to worry about.”
Biden spoke with Manchin and Schumer on Wednesday afternoon, he said in a statement thanking them — his first call with Manchin since December.
“This is the action the American people have been waiting for. This addresses the issues of today: high health care costs and general inflation, as well as investments in our energy security for the future,” he said, and asked Congress to pass it “as soon as possible.”
But in the radio interview, Manchin said he and his staff worked with Schumer and his team to craft the so-called Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, saying Biden was “not involved.”
“It was me and my staff,” Manchin told host Hoppy Kercheval. “And then we worked with Schumer’s staff. My staff drove it. We wrote the bill. Schumer’s staff looked at it and we negotiated, and we worked it through them.”
Manchin added: “President Biden was not involved.”
There are factors complicating the quick passage of the bill: Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin announced Thursday that he had tested positive for Covid-19 and would be self-isolating. To pass the bill, Democrats would need all 50 of their senators to be present and vote in favor of the bill with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote as all Republicans are expected to vote against the agreement
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell slammed the package, calling it “nonsense and favors for wealthy coastal elites.”
“This is the nonsense the Democrats are focusing on,” McConnell said. “It doesn’t help you put gas in your car, it doesn’t help you pay for your groceries. They want to use the middle-class economic crisis they themselves created as an excuse to raise your taxes and get through their environmental nonsense and of the new agreement”.
He added: “Our colleagues across the aisle have already completely lost America’s confidence in the economy before this reckless taxing and spending. It seems they now want to see how low they can go “.
Further complicating matters is Arizona Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a key moderate, who has not yet spoken out on the bill. He has previously raised concerns about taxes on carried interest, which would raise $14 billion from the deal. Sinema was not part of the negotiations for the current package.
But in a closed-door meeting Thursday, Schumer privately told Democrats that now is the time to get a bill to deal with climate change and allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices.
“We now have an opportunity to pass these two very important priorities before the August recess,” he said, according to a Democrat on the floor.
“It’s going to require us to stick together and work long days and nights for the next 10 days. We’re going to have to be disciplined in our messaging and focus. It’s going to be tough. But I think we can get … this … done.”
News of the deal surprised Republicans on Wednesday. The deal was announced shortly after the Senate approved a bill aimed at boosting U.S. semiconductor production, legislation that McConnell had threatened to block if Democrats tried to pass an economic and climate package.
Senate Republican Whip John Thune, when asked if the GOP gambled by letting the so-called CHIPS bill pass before cutting the Democrats’ economic deal, told CNN: “I think everybody was surprised, no doubt, by the representations that the Democrats had made about this deal, and I think there was a certain amount of people who were blindsided, not only on our side but on the Democrats’ side.”
Asked if McConnell played that right, he said: “You’ll have to talk to him about that.”
The bill, the full text of which has not been made public, would also have to pass the House, where Democrats have a more substantial but still slim majority.
Progressive Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Washington, called the Manchin-Schumer deal a “huge step forward” and a “massive achievement,” expressing confidence in the deal on CNN’s “New Day.”
“You’re welcome Joe Manchin, happy to work with you to get this done,” he said.
But there are still landmines in the House, including whether to revise the limits on state and local tax deductions that a handful of Democrats, mostly from the Northeast, have demanded.
This story has been updated with additional news.
CNN’s Maegan Vazquez contributed to this report.