The president spoke to a socially distanced audience of fewer than 200 officials, a small fraction of the usually packed crowd of lawmakers that is usually present for the speech. Those who were allowed to attend were instructed to wear masks, and they sat with several empty seats separating them from other audience members.
Mr. Biden has suffered from low approval ratings driven by rising inflation and a persistent pandemic, and he is in need of legislative victories. Economists are bracing for the current surge in cases to further disrupt job growth after the Labor Department reported on Friday that the United States added only 199,000 jobs in December, the smallest monthly gain of the year.
But the president has failed to sway the single Democratic holdout, Mr. Manchin, to vote for his $1.7 trillion social safety net, climate and tax package.
Mr. Manchin and another centrist Democrat, Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, have also resisted an intensified push by fellow Democrats to change the Senate’s filibuster rules so that the party can muscle through the stalled voting rights measures over Republican opposition.