WASHINGTON —

President Joe Biden faces a steep path to achieve his ambitious goal of slashing planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, amid legislative gridlock that has stalled a $2 trillion package of social and environmental initiatives.

Biden's Build Back Better plan, which contains $550 billion in spending and tax credits aimed at promoting clean energy, was sidetracked by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who said just before Christmas that he could not support the legislation as written.

Democrats insist they are moving forward on the sweeping package, which also would bolster family services, health care and other programs. Manchin signaled in recent days that climate-related provisions were unlikely to be a deal-breaker, but the bill has taken a back seat to voting rights legislation and other Democratic priorities.

Even without the legislation, Biden can pursue his climate agenda through rules and regulations. But those can be undone by subsequent presidents, as demonstrated by Biden reversing Trump administration rules that rolled back protections put into place under Barack Obama.

Experts cite Biden's executive authority to regulate tailpipe emissions from cars and trucks, as well as restrict emissions from power plants and other industrial sources, and the federal government's vast power to approve renewable energy projects on federal lands and waters.

Indeed, the Environmental Protection Agency announced new tailpipe rules for cars and trucks the day after Manchin's bombshell announcement Dec. 19. The next day, the Interior Department announced approval of two large-scale solar projects in California and moved to open up public lands in other Western states to solar development as part of the administration's efforts to counter climate change by shifting from fossil fuels.

The administration also has access to tens of billions of dollars under the bipartisan infrastructure law approved in November, including $7.5 billion to create a national network of electric vehicle chargers; $5 billion to deliver thousands of electric school buses nationwide; and $65 billion to upgrade the power grid to reduce outages and facilitate expansion of renewable energy such as wind and solar power.

"I think the U.S. has a lot of tools and a lot of options to make gains on climate in the next decade,'' said John Larsen, an energy systems expert and partner at the Rhodium Group, an independent research firm.

"Build Back Better is helpful" to meet Biden's goals, "but if you don't have Build Back Better, that doesn't mean nothing happens,'' Larsen said. "It just makes the task ahead a bit more challenging.''

Larsen is co-author of a Rhodium Group study last fall that found that passage of the Build Back Better package, along with the bipartisan infrastructure law and regulations by key federal agencies and states, could cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 45% to 51% below 2005 levels in 2030.

The Biden bill offers incentives for electric car purchases, development of technology to capture and store carbon emissions, and construction of wind and solar farms, among other provisions.

Global leaders made progress at a November climate summit in Scotland, "but there needs to be much more" action taken, said Penn State climate scientist Michael Mann. "And for the U.S. to be able to do its part, we need the climate provisions of Build Back Better to pass Congress as soon as possible.″

Jesse Jenkins, an energy systems engineer at Princeton University who has led an effort to model the Build Back Better bill's effect on U.S. emissions, said there is "a yawning gap" between where U.S. emissions are today "and where we need to be to hit President Biden's climate targets."

Such a gap "is unlikely to be bridged by executive action or state policy alone,'' Jenkins said in an email. The Princeton model estimates that the United States will fall 1.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent short of Biden's 2030 climate commitment without the Build Back Better law.

Carbon dioxide equivalent is a standard measurement for the range of so-called greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, that are generated from the burning of coal and petroleum and from other industrial uses and agriculture, and trap heat in the atmosphere.

Still, Jenkins remains optimistic about U.S. climate action.

"I do not accept the premise that the Build Back Better package is dead,'' he wrote, adding that he thinks "there is still a very good chance that Congress passes the climate provisions and some combination of social policies'' being pushed by Democrats.

"The consequences of failure are untenable, and the climate clock only moves in one direction,'' Jenkins said.

Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., said she's confident Biden and his administration will make good use of their current regulatory authority, as well as billions of dollars in new spending in the bipartisan infrastructure law. But on their own, those tools are not enough to meet Biden's climate goals, she said. Rules imposed by one administration can be undone by the next, as Biden and former President Donald Trump have both demonstrated repeatedly.

Trump withdrew the U.S. from the global Paris climate accord and rolled back dozens of regulations imposed by his Democratic predecessor, Obama. Biden, in turn, has moved to reverse Trump on a range of actions, from rejoining the Paris agreement to canceling the Keystone XL oil pipeline and pausing new oil and gas leasing on federal lands and waters.

Biden has elevated the issue of climate change across the U.S. government, signing an executive order to make the government carbon-neutral by 2050 and converting to an all-electric fleet of car and trucks by 2035.

Even so, Biden's efforts can only go so far without an assist from Congress.

"Regulatory authority is no substitute for congressional action,'' Smith said. "That's why it's so important that we pass the strongest bill possible, and that's what we're focusing on doing.''

Enacting clean-energy investments in the Build Back Better Act would cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by a cumulative 5 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030, Jenkins said, an amount that would "put the U.S. within easy reach'' of Biden's commitment to cut emissions to half of 2005 levels by 2030.

Manchin, who chairs the Senate Energy Committee and whose state's economy relies heavily on energy production, suggested he could back many of the climate provisions in the bill, including some tax credits. He also wants to include money to promote nuclear power and capture emissions from industrial facilities that pump out greenhouse gases.

"I think the climate thing is one that we probably can come to an agreement on much easier than anything else," Manchin told reporters on Tuesday.

Democrats would need all their votes in the 50-50 Senate to advance the measure over unanimous Republican opposition.

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AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein contributed to this story.

WASHINGTON — Child tax credits, hearing benefits for those on Medicare, and even investments to limit climate change were all supposed to be issues addressed in the coming days by Congress.

However, as we have been reporting, the Build Back Better bill has stalled with no indication President Biden withe President Biden being unable to get his agenda voted on by Christmas.

So what's the divide. Is it money? Politics? The type of programs?

SPLIT SENATE

You are wrong if you thought President Biden's agenda has stalled because of Republicans battling Democrats.

The Build Back Better bill was always written so that it could become law with only Democratic votes since Democrats control the house and the senate.

So what's the divide?

Right now, President Biden hasn’t been able to convince every Democratic senator to be on board, with Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia being the most elusive.

Because Manchin’s support is needed, Manchin has as much veto power on this issue as the president.

As far as money, that isn’t the problem.

Both President Biden and Senator Manchin agree spending around $1.7 trillion is okay.

The debate is over how to spend the money and for how long.

President Biden wants the legislation to create and fund everything from capping child care costs to offering medicare hearing coverage to investing in climate change.

The President addresses all of these issues by only funding some programs for a limited time since he can only spend a limited amount of money.

For example, President Biden only funds the expanded child tax credit for one year.

Child care subsidies would last just three years.

Funding for pre-K would expire after six years.

Manchin disagrees with that approach.

Instead of funding a plethora of programs for a couple of years, Democrats should pick one or two and fund them for a decade or so.

If they don’t, he fears benefits could be taken away from Americans by future leaders, or they would contribute to the national debt.

"I think everybody has to choose what we can sustain,” Manchin told reporters this week.

“My grandfather used to say un-managed debt will make a coward out of the decisions you make.”

A big question now is what does president Biden do next?

Officially the White House says negotiations with Senator Manchin and every other Democrat continue over the holidays. Still, the philosophical disagreement won't be an easy one to overcome.

IT STARTED IN THE MIDDLE OF JULY AND CONTINUES THIS WEEK WITH ANOTHER ROUND OF BANK DEPOSITS SET FOR DEC. 15. — The final payment from the expanded child tax credit is scheduled to go out on Dec. 15. Early analysis shows the extra cash has lowered poverty rates by around 40%.

The Build Back Better bill, which the Senate is expected to debate vigorously this week, would expand the credit for another year. But the future of the bill is very much unclear. That’s because the Senate is split 50-50.

For the bill to pass, every Democrat must support it because all Republicans are opposed. The vice president would break a potential tie.

So far, not every Democrat has committed to voting for the bill. One of those undecided is Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

In addition to expressing doubts about the overall spending in the bill, he has also previously said he thinks the 2021 expanded child tax credit was too generous. He added that he would like to see changes.

For example, Manchin has said he would like a work requirement for parents to receive it. Such a requirement is not part of the 2021 tax credit.

If this week is the final expanded child tax credit payment, it doesn’t mean the entire child tax credit would go away. The IRS would revert to the traditional, albeit smaller, child tax credit. Parents would get that money when they file their tax returns instead of monthly installments.

How big would that change be? The left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says a single mother of two, working a part-time job that pays around $12,500 a year, gets $550 per month under the 2021 tax laws.

Without the monthly child tax credit, that single mother would only get around $1,500 for the entire year.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A quarter of older Americans says it's difficult to pay for prescription medications.

One reason, according to AARP, is the price has increased dramatically over the last decade.

From 2006 to 2020, according to their analysis, prices for 65 brand-name drugs increased by approximately 276%.

BUILD BACK BETTER

“We can all agree prescription drugs are expensive in this country,” President Joe Biden said at a White House event on the issue earlier this week.

Biden is hoping his Build Back Better plan gets passed in Congress to address the issue.

One big change involves the possibility of price negotiation.

Currently, Medicare officials cannot negotiate drug prices for their beneficiaries.

However, the Build Back Better plan, which may be voted on by Christmas in the Senate, would allow for some price negotiation.

Democrats believe that will lower the cost of prescriptions for Americans.

SAVINGS TAKE TIME

However, the savings will take time to reach Americans

The president’s big plan only allows for 10 drugs to initially be negotiated.

The first negotiations wouldn’t take place until 2025.

Newly-launched drugs would not be eligible for negotiation and lower prices.

President Biden’s plan also calls for out-of-pocket drug costs to be capped at $2,000 for those on Medicare Part D.

However, those savings wouldn’t kick until 2024, according to the latest text of the bill.

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES

Could this big change by Congress have a negative impact on science?

Ed Haislmaier thinks so. Haislmaier is a policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

“It could limit research,” Haislmaier said.

He argues the threat of lower profits for drugs companies could limit research and the development of newer, more effective drugs for older Americans.

“Whenever you're doing work in this area, you are taking a big risk," he added. "You have to have the potential of a big payoff."

For the millions of Americans struggling to pay the bills any relief is welcomed.

WILMINGTON, Del. —

A difficult political atmosphere for President Joe Biden may have become even more treacherous with the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse.

Biden was already facing sliding poll numbers with an electorate worn down by the coronavirus pandemic and increasing inflation. Now, the president finds himself caught between outraged Democrats — some of whom were already stewing over Biden’s inability to land police reform and voting rights legislation — and Republicans looking to use the Rittenhouse case to exploit the national divide over matters of grievance and race.

“This is one of the last things Biden wants to be engaging in at this moment as he tries to finish up the big Build Back Better bill and get that across the finish line through the Senate,” said Christopher Borick, director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion. “Race and Kyle Rittenhouse is not the space where he wants or needs to be going deep right now.”

The acquittal of Rittenhouse has touched off new conversations about racial justice, vigilantism and policing in America. The Illinois teen armed himself with an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle during an August 2020 protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, days after the shooting of a Black man by a white police officer. He said he came to the small city to help protect a car lot from vandals and provide medical aid.

Rittenhouse would end up fatally shooting two men and maiming a third. Rittenhouse and his lawyers successfully argued that he had acted in self-defense during a confrontation in which he feared for his life.

The verdict in the case comes at a moment when Biden is trying to keep fellow Democrats focused on passing his massive social services and climate bill and hoping to turn the tide with Americans who have soured on his performance as president.

The president responded carefully following Friday's verdict, expressing respect for the jury’s decision. He later added in a written statement that, like many Americans, he was “angry and concerned” with the jury acquittal of Rittenhouse.

Meanwhile, Republicans, who had success in this month’s Virginia election in part by accusing Democrats of promoting critical race theory in public schools, are embracing 18-year-old Rittenhouse as their newest hero in America’s culture wars.

GOP Reps. Paul Gosar of Arizona and Matt Gaetz of Florida have said they’d like to hire him as an intern, with Gosar suggesting they arm wrestle for the honor. Another Republican, Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, on Saturday predicted that liberal outrage over the Rittenhouse trial would benefit her party.

“It seems liberals want self-defense to be illegal,” Boebert tweeted. “Try running on that in 2022 and see how far it gets you with the majority of the sane American public.”

Former President Donald Trump was quick to stand with Rittenhouse following the verdict. He called the teen “brave” for testifying in his own defense and accused the left of trying “to fan hatred” with its treatment of Rittenhouse.

Trump has spent much of his post-presidency stoking divisions with his frontal criticism of Biden and of any Republican who has not marched in lockstep with his views. And most Republicans, either through silence or direct endorsement, have followed his lead.

In the aftermath of the acquittal, Republicans have highlighted a tweet by Biden during his winning 2020 presidential campaign in which he appeared to suggest that Rittenhouse was a white supremacist.

The tweet, from September 2020, excoriated Trump for failing “to disavow white supremacists on the debate stage” the previous night and included a video that contained a still image of Rittenhouse from the night of the Kenosha shooting and footage of torch-bearing white supremacists at the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel are among party officials who have called on Biden to apologize.

“He smeared a teenager to score political points and spread lies about this case,” McDaniel wrote on Twitter. “What Biden did was dangerous and inflammatory.”

Asked by a reporter soon after the verdict if he stood by his campaign social media posting, Biden responded that “I stand by what the jury has concluded.”

Borick, the Muhlenberg College pollster, said the results of this month’s elections in Virginia show that driving at cultural issues — including race and transgender rights — could be a good strategy for Republicans trying to energize a segment of the electorate that was passionate about Trump but less enthusiastic about the rest of the GOP. But Borick warned that the GOP’s fulsome embrace of Rittenhouse wasn’t without risk.

“I don’t know if it’s a great place to be if you’re trying, come the midterms, to reach suburban voters and educated voters who might not fault the decision to acquit Rittenhouse because of the circumstances but are far from comfortable holding him up as a hero,” Borick said.

Even before the verdict, Biden had been facing increased pressure from some Democrats over the lack of progress on passing voting rights and police reform legislation.

Last month, a day after Senate Republicans filibustered a major voting bill for the second time this year, Biden acknowledged that the process of governing could be “frustrating and sometimes dispiriting” but urged supporters to “keep the faith.”

At the same, civil rights leaders have expressed frustration that Biden has not used the power of the bully pulpit more to push for a broad police reform bill named after George Floyd, the Black Minneapolis man whose killing last year by police touched off protests around the U.S.

Speaking at an event earlier this week where he signed into law a trio of bills to increase aid to police, Biden only made passing mention of the George Floyd act, asking legislators from both parties to work together to make it law.

“That’s next,” Biden said.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In Washington, DC, the buzz of the town is President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better bill. But one thing that’s not being talked about is something called SALT.

“The problem is, this policy is very, very expensive and regressive,” said Maya MacGuineas, the president of the non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

MacGuineas has been very focused on SALT in recent weeks.

So, what is SALT? Clearly, we're not talking about the table seasoning, but "state and local taxes" and deductions you may or may not be able to take on your federal tax return. Before 2017, there was no limit on how much of the state and local taxes an individual paid that they could deduct from the federal tax return but in 2017, former President Donald Trump’s tax cuts changed that.

“You add all those state and local taxes together and they were capped at a deduction of $10,000,” said Sharon Lassar, the director of The School of Accountancy at the University of Denver.

She has been following the news around SALT and the bill. The most recent proposal would increase the SALT cap from $10,000 to more than $72,000, reducing the overall tax burden for some.

“In this package, 80% of the benefits go to people making over $200,000 per year,” said MacGuineas. “This is not the targeted low-income people that a lot of people expect in this bill.”

So, who exactly benefits from the SALT cap repeal? It’s individuals with high incomes in states with high-income taxes. So, think New York, New Jersey, and California.

“The average person probably doesn’t pay more than $10,000 in state and local taxes,” said MacGuineas. “About 50% of this is going to the very richest 1% and they, on average, would be getting an annual tax break of over $35,000.”

A big advocate for the removal of the SALT cap is Rep. Thomas Souzzi from New York. He recently said in a statement, “This fix will put money back in the pockets of hardworking, middle-class families in our districts,” but would not respond to our requests for an interview.

One thing to keep in mind: no text draft of this bill has been released to the public yet. So, we are only getting this from people working on the bill.

OKLAHOMA CITY, Ok. — With permission from mom, Michelle Miller shows off her three former foster kids as if they were her own.

"I cared about them a lot, so I wanted the best and it was frustrating because I couldn't just go out and find a place," she said.

What Miller is referring to was the hunt to find child care since the children were all below kindergarten age. It was an agonizing, long process. Some facilities had no availability, some had waitlists with indeterminate ends, and if they did have availability, it wasn’t for all three kids. Pandemic protocols also hindered the search.

"Not only could we not see a lot of the classrooms, then we couldn't even meet the teacher. So, it was kind of an uncomfortable feeling, but you had to have childcare, you have to, so we just kept trying and trying," she said.

Miller eventually lucked out in her search, but according to the executive director of the Oklahoma childcare resource and referral association, her struggle is shared. The lack of options is what some say are holding back parents from re-entering the workforce.

"We've seen it across the entire state. We've seen it across the entire country," said executive director Paula Koos.

In a report released in September by the US Department of the Treasury, about half the country is in a “childcare desert”. That term is defined by at least three children for every one open daycare spot. In some areas, like the Oklahoma panhandle, there are five children for every one open spot and one open daycare center for the three counties that make up the area.

"For parents. It's been difficult because facilities have had to downsize. Staff have been out sick and so they're not serving as many children," Koos said.

Ramona Johnson is a director at Rainbow Fleet, a relatively new daycare facility in Oklahoma City.

"We're full until. Late summer, early fall of next year. I'm with child, I'm on our waitlist here and I work here," she said.

The lack of open spots for her center and ones like it around the country comes down to one thing: staffing.

"We've used Indeed and other work website, so it's definitely been a struggle and even sometimes that has been disappointing," she said. "Just paying for these websites and people don't show up for interviews or, you know, people show up and they don't stay long."

Staffing issues are not a pandemic-born problem, but COVID revealed just how critical it has become.

There are strict ratios of teachers to children and if a teacher leaves, the daycare has to lose spots, and because they’re mostly private businesses, they lose income.

Between 26% and 40% of the child care workforce, which is made up almost entirely of women and a third of which are women of color, leave every year. This is mostly because of poor pay and no benefits.

At an average salary is just $24,230, making child care workers are in the bottom two percentile of occupations.

However, families are spending on average 13% of their income on high childcare costs.

"The child care industry as a whole is often seen as just babysitting and it's so much more," said Stephanie Daniels, a child care consultant based in Tulsa.

She says the overhead costs of supplies are what eat up most of the money going into childcare. With how things are trending, she says some intervention must happen.

"There needs to be a public investment of some kind to really help sustain this workforce," said Daniels.

There’s help written into Biden’s current Build Back Better plan. It has an agenda to make childcare more affordable and available, but as it’s being trimmed down by trillions, it’s not certain whether the child care measures will remain in it.

As Washington determines whether or not to through the industry a lifesaver, Miller has hope for parents and guardians who were in her position.

"I'm sure that Oklahoma isn't the only place struggling, but I know that it's a need and it's going to get worked out, I feel that," she said.

WASHINGTON —

After months of talks with Democratic lawmakers, President Joe Biden outlined Thursday a $1.75 trillion framework to support families and education as well as protect against global warming.

The updated plan includes universal preschool, funding to limit child care costs and a one-year continuation of a child tax credit that was expanded earlier this year and applied to more families. But Democrats are scaling back some investments and shortening the timeframe for funding to whittle down spending. Some proposals were dropped entirely. More negotiations are possible.

The framework fits an approximately $1.75 trillion budget over 10 years, rather than the $3.5 trillion budget plan originally envisioned.

Here's what's in the package, according to the White House:

TAX BREAKS

— An expanded child tax credit would continue for another year. As part of a COVID relief bill, Democrats increased the tax credit to $3,000 per child age 6-17 and $3,600 per child age 5 and under. Households earning up to $150,000 per year get the credit paid out to them on a monthly basis. Budget hawks worry that a one-year extension is a budgetary tool that will lower the cost of the program on paper, but mask its true costs since lawmakers tend to continue programs rather than let them expire.

— Continue for one year the expanded Earned Income Tax Credit that goes to 17 million childless, low-income workers.

EDUCATION

— Universal prekindergarten for all 3- and 4-year-olds and child-care subsidies for poorer and middle-income Americans are part of the package. But the programs are only funded for six years.

— Provide $40 billion for higher education and workforce development. This includes raising the size of Pell Grants and providing funding for historically Black colleges and universities as well as institutions where students are largely Hispanic or serve tribal communities.

HEALTH CARE

— Medicare would be expanded to cover hearing aids, costing an estimated $35 billion over 10 years.

— Expanded tax credits for insurance premiums tied to the Affordable Care Act would be extended through 2025. The White House said it would help 3 million uninsured people gain coverage.

— Provide $150 billion for a Medicaid program that supports home health care, helping to clear a backlog and improving working conditions.

— Provide $90 billion for investments that would include funding maternal health, community violence initiatives, disadvantaged farmers, nutrition and pandemic preparation.

CHILD CARE

— Biden’s plan calls for parents earning up to 250% of a state’s median income to pay no more than 7% of their income on child care. Parents must be working, seeking a job, in school or dealing with a health issue to qualify.

HOUSING

— Commit $150 billion toward housing affordability with the goal of building more than 1 million new rental and single-family homes. The goal would be to reduce price pressures by providing rental and down payment assistance.

ENVIRONMENT

— Fund $320 billion worth of clean energy tax credits. These credits over 10 years would help businesses and homeowners shift to renewable energy sources for electricity, vehicles and manufacturing.

— Direct $105 billion toward investments that would improve communities' ability to withstand the extreme weather caused by climate change. The funding would also create a Civilian Climate Corps that focuses on conserving public lands and bolster community resilience to flooding, drought and other weather emergencies.

— Provide $110 billion to help develop new domestic supply chains and develop new solar and battery technologies. Support would also be given to existing steel, cement and aluminum industries.

— Use $20 billion for the government to become the buyer of clean energy technologies as part of the procurement process.

TAXES

— Beefs up the IRS to improve collections and close the gap between taxes owed and taxes paid.

— A 15% minimum income tax on large corporations, along with a 1% surcharge on corporate stock buybacks.

— A new surtax on multi-millionaires and billionaires.

— Aligning the U.S. with an agreement reached by more than 100 countries earlier this month designed to deter multinational companies from stashing profits in low-tax countries.

— Closes a provision that allows some wealthy taxpayers to avoid paying the 3.8% Medicare tax on their earnings.

WHAT'S OUT OF THE BILL

— A proposal to expand Medicare to cover dental and vision care is out because of concerns about the overall costs.

— A proposal to provide paid family and medical leave to new parents, those caring for loved ones or those recovering from an illness. The United States is one of the only countries in the world that doesn’t guarantee paid leave.

— A proposal to have Medicare negotiate prescription drug prices.

Democrats will reportedly drop paid family and medical leave from their trillion-dollar reconciliation package.

According to CNN, Sen. Joe Manchin wouldn't agree to the initiative out of fear it couldn't be paid for.

"I want to work with everyone as long as we can start paying for things. That's all." CNN quoted Manchin. "I can't put this burden on my grandchildren. I've got 10 grandchildren ... I just can't do it."

Sen. Kristen Gillibrand, a supporter of paid lead, reportedly tried but failed to convince Manchin to back the policy.

 "Until the bill is printed, I will continue working to include paid leave in the Build Back Better plan," Gillibrand said, according to Politico.

Dropping paid leave from the reconciliation package is a blow to President Joe Biden, who campaigned on providing leave to workers.

He is scheduled to visit with lawmakers on Thursday before he leaves for Europe to meet other world leaders.

Democrats were hoping to come to an agreement before the president left the country.

WASHINGTON —

Deadline-driven, President Joe Biden brought two pivotal senators to his Delaware home Sunday for talks aimed at resolving the disputes that have stymied the Democrats' wide-ranging social safety net and environmental measure at the core of his domestic agenda.

Beyond the domestic timetable, Biden is pressing for progress so he can spotlight his administration's achievements to world leaders at overseas summits that get underway this week.

Related video above: Biden CNN town hall recap

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she expected an agreement on a framework by week's end, paving the way for a House vote on a separate $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill before next Sunday, when a series of transportation programs will lapse.

“That’s the plan,” she said.

The White House said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., came to Biden's home in Wilmington, where he was spending the weekend, for the session but did not immediately provide a statement detailing what was discussed.

Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., two of their party's most moderate members, have insisted on reducing the size of the enormous package and have pressed for other changes.

Pelosi said she was waiting for the Senate to wrap up talks and was expecting a plan to be introduced as early as Monday. Top Democrats are scrambling to have a framework so they can move to pass the infrastructure bill, which progressives in the House have held up as leverage to force an agreement on the bigger package of health care, education and environment initiatives.

“I think we’re pretty much there,” said Pelosi, stressing that a few “last decisions” need to be made. "It is less than what was projected to begin with, but it’s still bigger than anything we have ever done in terms of addressing the needs of America’s working families.”

Democrats initially planned that the measure would contain $3.5 trillion worth of spending and tax initiatives over 10 years. But demands by moderates led by Manchin and Sinema to contain costs mean its final price tag could well be less than $2 trillion.

Disputes remain over whether some priorities must be cut or excluded. These include plans to expand Medicare coverage, child care assistance and helping lower-income college students. Manchin, whose state has a major coal industry, has opposed proposals to penalize utilities that do not switch quickly to clean energy.

Pelosi said Democrats were still working to keep in provisions for four weeks of paid family leave but acknowledged that other proposals such as expanding Medicare to include dental coverage could prove harder to save because of cost. “Dental will take a little longer to implement,” she said.

Also expected to be trimmed is a clean energy proposal that was the centerpiece of Biden’s strategy for fighting climate change. Biden has set a goal of reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2030. But Manchin has made clear he opposes the initial clean energy proposal, which was to have the government impose penalties on electric utilities that fail to meet clean energy benchmarks and provide financial rewards to those that do.

Democrats were hoping Biden could cite major accomplishments when he attends a global conference in Scotland on climate change in early November after attending a summit of world leaders in Rome.

Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with Democrats, said the expected cuts to the clean energy provisions in the spending bill were especially disappointing because “it weakens Joe Biden’s hands in Glasgow."

“If we’re going to get the rest of the world to take serious steps to remedy this problem, we’ve got to do it ourselves,” he said.

Pelosi insisted that Democrats had pieced together other policies in the spending bill that could reduce emissions. “We will have something that will meet the president’s goals,” she said.

The White House and congressional leaders have tried to push monthslong negotiations toward a conclusion by the end of October. Democrats’ aim is to produce an outline by then that would spell out the overall size of the measure and describe policy goals that leaders as well as progressives and moderates would endorse.

The wide-ranging measure carries many of Biden's top domestic priorities. Party leaders want to end internal battles, avert the risk that the effort could fail and focus voters' attention on the plan's popular programs for helping families with child care, health costs and other issues.

Democrats also want to make progress that could help Democrat Terry McAuliffe win a neck-and-neck Nov. 2 gubernatorial election in Virginia.

The hope is that an agreement between the party's two factions would create enough trust to let Democrats finally push through the House the separate $1 trillion package of highway and broadband projects.

That bipartisan measure was approved over the summer by the Senate. But it stalled after House progressives pulled their support due to disagreements on the bigger spending bill, causing Congress to miss an initial deadline in late September and to rush to approve stopgap money for lapsing transportation programs. Pelosi later set an Oct. 31 target for passage of the infrastructure bill, though lawmakers already have slipped past last Friday's goal set by Democratic leaders to reach agreement on the spending package.

With Republicans fully opposed to Biden’s spending plans, the president needs all Democrats in the 50-50 split Senate for passage and can only spare a few votes in the House.

Rep. Ro Khanna, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, maintained that his caucus will not budge on supporting the infrastructure bill before Oct. 31 if there is no agreement on the broader package, which would be passed under so-called budget reconciliation rules.

“The president needs the reconciliation agreement to go to Glasgow,” said Khanna, D-Calif. “That’s what is going to deal with climate change, that’s what’s going to hit his goals of 50% reduction by 2030. I’m confident we will have an agreement.”

Pelosi spoke on CNN's “State of the Union," King appeared on NBC's “Meet the Press" and Khanna on “Fox News Sunday.”

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AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro and Associated Press writer Alan Fram contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite a long night of frantic negotiations, Democrats are still struggling to reach a deal on President Joe Biden's $3.5 trillion government overhaul.

Late-night votes have been called off, with action to resume Friday.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi had pushed the House into an evening session as the Democratic leaders worked to negotiate a scaled-back plan centrist holdouts would accept.

But it appeared no immediate deal was within reach after hours of top White House aides shuttling across the Capitol between the offices of Pelosi, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin.

Manchin held fast to his declaration that he was willing to meet the president less than halfway, and late-night votes were called off.

WHEELING, W.V. — It is a resource that cannot be measured just by the power it produces.

“Coal means everything to this part of the country," said coal miner Matt Huonker.

“Without the coal mines in this area, there wouldn’t be an Ohio Valley I wouldn’t think," coal miner Michael Knight said.

In some parts of America, families are fueled by coal. It’s been that way for generations.

“You’re either a coal miner or you’re not," said Rick Altman with the United Mine Workers of America.

What it takes to mine coal is something only those who go beneath the surface, day in and day out, truly understand.

“What we do every day is not for everybody, not everybody can do it, and it takes a special kind of person to do what we do," said Huonker.

Coal and mining define places like those around Wheeling, West Virginia, but it’s an industry that’s lost more than half of its jobs over the past decade as America has looked elsewhere for energy, according to the UMWA.

"It’s not a good industry to be in right now. There’s a war on coal, whether people want to say it or not," Huonker said.

Now, as President Joe Biden is pushing a more than $2 trillion infrastructure plan, with billions going toward green energy, those in the coal industry are concerned about what that could mean for the future of their jobs.

“Look, we all want clean water and clean air, but there are ways to do this, and I don’t believe the destruction of good-paying jobs with good health care, I don’t believe we have researched, the government has researched other avenues to be able to take it," Altman said.

The UMWA has supported Biden’s green energy plans with the promise that people like coal miners will keep their jobs, but a promise can only mean so much for Altman.

"Where’s the plan other than, you know, you saying it’s going to be, well show me in black and white that people have committed, not just the government but manufacturers and companies have committed to the reeducation and restructuring of this country," he said.

It’s not the first time those in West Virginia have heard the political promises of saving coal country.

“It’s easy to talk, I’m doing that, but show me show what you’re going to do, tell me who’s coming, and we haven’t seen that yet," Altman said.

The union wants to see a national training program to help dislocated miners find other jobs and tuition money to go back to school. But change, while perhaps inevitable for the coal industry, won’t be easy to embrace for some miners like Huonker.

“No, I don’t want to switch careers. I like what I do. I don’t want to switch careers at all," he said.

It’s unclear what the future will hold for places like West Virginia and its communities that have long relied on a resource that America is relying on less.

But whatever the plan, the political promises, these coal workers want to make sure they are not left behind.

“We power this country. We do it safely, we do it efficiently and all we ask is to put some money in to keep everybody in a job," Altman said.