President Joe Biden pleaded with House Democrats on Thursday to embrace his “framework” for a $1.85 trillion economic and environmental bill, saying its fate would help determine that of his presidency and his party’s hold on Congress, and its success would restore the nation’s standing on the world stage.

The President, who delayed his departure for a trip to Europe to try to nail down an accord on his domestic agenda, used a morning meeting at the Capitol to try to rally House Democrats around the emerging deal.

“We have a framework that will get 50 votes in the United States Senate,” Biden told the group, according to a person familiar with his private remarks. “I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that the House and Senate majorities and my presidency will be determined by what happens in the next week.”

Later, in public remarks at the White House, Biden hailed the plan as “historic”.

“No one got everything they wanted, including me,” he said in the East Room before departing on a trip to Rome. “But that’s what compromise is. That’s consensus. And that’s what I ran on.”

Crucial details of the legislation remained in flux, even as the President pushed to convince liberal members that a final compromise was close enough to allow them to support a separate $1 trillion infrastructure bill that has already passed the Senate.

House leaders were pressing Democrats to vote for the public works legislation later.

“We badly need a vote on both of these measures,” Biden privately told them on Thursday morning, according to the person. But liberals were still unsatisfied with a plan that was clearly unfinished — and that omitted many of their cherished priorities. “What I would say is you have the outline of a very significant piece of legislation — I want us to make it better,” said Senator Bernie Sanders.

New York Times News Service