[The stream is slated to start at 10:15 a.m. ET. Please refresh the page if you do not see a player above at that time.]
President Joe Biden is set to tout a stellar new jobs report showing payrolls rising above expectations and the unemployment rate shrinking in October, a welcome development for the president as the House prepares critical votes on legislation that could define his agenda.
The votes, on both a bipartisan infrastructure package and a sweeping social safety-net bill, are expected Friday – three days after a major Republican victory in the Virginia gubernatorial election set off alarms up and down the Democratic establishment.
Biden lamented that the legislation had not passed before Tuesday’s elections, though he doubted whether that would have changed the outcome.
Republicans are favored to win back majority control of at least one chamber of Congress in the 2022 midterms, all but ensuring certain death for Democrats’ major legislative goals.
Accordingly, the Biden administration and Democratic leaders have pushed lawmakers to quickly hash out the details of the sweeping plans to overhaul the economy. But those efforts have been stymied by a rolling series of conflicts between the progressive wing of the party and a handful of key conservative and moderate holdouts.
