According to Joe Manchin, Senators such as Kyrsten Sinema were not spoken to in negotiations on climate change, taxes, and health care because he feared they would limit the bill coming to fruition. Manchin said, “The reason people weren’t brought into this, I didn’t think it would come to fruition. I didn’t want to disappoint people.”

Overall, the bill is a smaller package than the nearly $3 Trillion BBB deal Democrats hoped to pass before Joe Manchin claimed he wouldn’t support it. Since then, Chuch Schumer and Joe Manchin have been working closely on negotiating a smaller package. The newly agreed upon package would invest nearly $369 Billion in climate programs over ten years and $300 Billion would be spent reducing the deficit.

Joe Manchin said Kyrsten Sinema was instrumental in allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. “She has so much in this piece of legislation. She’s formed quite a bit of it and worked on it very hard,” Manchin added as he said he and Sinema also speak a lot. “Hopefully, she will be positive about it. But she’ll make her decision. I respect that.”

Joe Manchin indicated that he hopes the Senate can pass the bill this week before the August recess.