He was back on Thursday in an even more precarious political situation. Inflation is rising, and growth slowed to 0.5 percent in the last quarter. A loss in the Virginia governor’s race on Tuesday would be seen as a harbinger for Democratic defeats in next year’s midterm elections.
“Do your job,” the Democratic candidate, Terry McAuliffe, told Congress on CNN on Thursday. “Get this passed.”
Mr. Biden told lawmakers final passage of the bipartisan bill to build roads, bridges and tunnels; promote rural broadband; and begin transitioning the country to electric vehicles would help convince European leaders that democracy can still work. “The rest of the world wonders whether we can function,” he privately told House Democrats.
“We badly need a vote on both of these measures,” Mr. Biden added.
But liberals wanted more than talking points on a plan that was clearly still unfinished even as Mr. Biden lauded its components.
“You have the outline of a very significant piece of legislation,” said Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the Budget Committee chairman whose views hold sway with liberals in the House. “I want us to make it better.”
Democratic leaders had been keen to hand the president a victory to take abroad. The president planned to attend a climate summit on Monday in Scotland, where he hoped to point to the deal as evidence of the United States’ commitment to tackling climate change.
“When the president gets off that plane, we want him to have a vote of confidence from this Congress,” Ms. Pelosi told Democrats during the private meeting, according to the person familiar with the session.