Biden to speak to Senator Manchin on spending bill

[October 19, 2021]    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden said on Monday that he was going to speak with Senator Joe Manchin, the centrist Democrat from coal-rich West Virginia whose vote is crucial to the passage of the budget reconciliation bill pending in Congress.

U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) pauses during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the conclusion of military operations in Afghanistan and plans for future counterterrorism operations, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., September 28, 2021. Stefani Reynolds/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

Asked by reporters at the White House how he planned to get Manchin to agree to support his agenda, Biden pointed at the Oval Office and said: "We're doing that right now. That's what I'm doing."

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal in Washington and Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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