Democrats' last, best chance to legislate before the midterms starts now

The multitrillion-dollar domestic policy bill that Democrats labored for months last year to pass is dead. But the party is still working on a more modest version that Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) can support.

Democrats are trying to finish work on a new version of the bill by July 4, our colleague Tony Romm reports. But Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) told Tony that “she has been in conversations in which lawmakers acknowledge they have far less time than it appears, and they need instead to broker a deal around Memorial Day, which marks the end of the upcoming work period.”

“It doesn’t get easier the longer we wait,” Smith said.

The question is which programs in the original bill Manchin might be persuaded to support as part of a new one.