JUDY WOODRUFF: As we
mark 300,000 deaths from
COVID, a deal to provide
economic relief still

eludes lawmakers. Time is time
is running out, as benefits
from the CARES Act expire

the day after Christmas.

A bipartisan group has
now offered two proposals
this afternoon to try
to break the gridlock.

West Virginia Senator
Joe Manchin is one of
the key architects, and
he joins us now from

Capitol Hill.

Senator Manchin, thank you
very much for joining us again.

Tell us why your proposal
-- thank you -- why your
proposal is now broken
up into two separate

bills.

SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV):
Well, it's not just mine.

This has been a group of people
that have started together in
a bipartisan way. It started

after the election on November
the 4th. We made phone calls
back and forth. Those of

us who have always worked
together said, we have
got to do something.

Talked to Susan, talked to
Lisa, talked to all my friends,
Mitt, all my Democratic friends.

We had a dinner at Lisa's
house, the eight of us there,
the Gang of Eight. And it grew

exponentially.

We now have a unanimous group
of people that have agreed on
$748 billion that takes care

of all of the emergency needs
that we have that will expire
at the end of December, Judy,

so people will not go without
unemployment checks. It's
$300 a week for 16 weeks. They

will not go without
food assistance. We put
over $13 billion, and
even helping, basically,

food banks and everyone else
who is feeding people that
they never fed before because

of hard times.

We're taking care of
health care. We're taking
care of basically the
needs that people have

as a lifeline. All of the
emergencies are taken care of
in this bill, unanimous Democrat

and Republican. There's no
reason why this wouldn't be
passed immediately if they put

it on the floor.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And...

SEN. JOE MANCHIN: And the only
thing I can tell everybody,
help is on the way. We're

not leaving. We will not go
home for Christmas. We will not
leave this place until that bill

is passed.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And do you have
reason to believe that you're
going to get the support of the

leadership and the majority of
both political parties behind
what you're putting forward?

SEN. JOE MANCHIN: Well,
there's no reason why not.

We have been working and growing
this group of Democrats and
Republicans, from Dick Durbin

to Rob Portman, people
well-respected within
their political caucuses,
if you will, Democrat

and Republican. We have
gotten people all in between.

And this is the only game in
town. There's nobody else has
done what we have done and

stuck with it. Nobody thought
we would have a bill. We have
a bill of $748 billion, close

to 600 pages, we have put
together and presented
it tonight. It'll be
on the Internet. You

can see it. You can look
at every piece of it.

It's not perfect. I'm sure
that people are going to say,
well, there's things you left

out.

I remind you, this is an
emergency see COVID relief
bill, only until April 1.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And...

SEN. JOE MANCHIN: Joe Biden
comes in as our president in
January. He can evaluate the

economy what's -- what
we need to be doing, and
present more if needed.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And...

SEN. JOE MANCHIN: This
gets us through the...

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Senator...

SEN. JOE MANCHIN: ... worst,
difficult, challenging time.

JUDY WOODRUFF:
Excuse me, Senator.

I listened to your news
conference with the
other Republicans and
Democrats who were on

board with you on this
compromise, which raises
the question, where
-- again, where is the

leadership and the rest of
these two political parties?

As we know, for the Democrats,
one of the main sticking
points has been aid for state

and local governments. That
money appears to be in a second
proposal, as well as so-called

liability protection
for businesses,
hospitals and others.

My question on that is, why
isn't there agreement there? And
is that still going to hold up

agreement on this, what you put
forward, what we just discussed?

SEN. JOE MANCHIN: That should
not hold agreement up on this.

We would love to have one bill.
We have agreed on 4908 billion,
$160 billion for state and

local need. There's an awful
lot of states. And there's a
lot of people, basically, first

responders, whether it
be policemen, firemen,
whatever, that we --
essential services -- that

we need in every state that
are basically reducing their
work force because of a lack

of revenue. That needs
to be attended to.

The other is liability.
My Republican friends
believe very strongly
that businesses shouldn't

be able to sue out of business
-- be sued out of business.

We, as Democrats, believe that
too. Where they break down
in differences is how -- your

ability to be able to get into
court, Judy. How do you protect
the workplace? How do you

protect the worker?

JUDY WOODRUFF: And do you...

SEN. JOE MANCHIN: We
have narrowed it down to
just a period of time.

It's for two years, one year
prior, starting in December
9, 2019, and then ends in the

end of 2021. So, it's very...

(CROSSTALK)

JUDY WOODRUFF: And it's
my understand -- I'm
sorry to interrupt again.

But it's my understanding
that you at this point are the
only Democrats supporting what

the Republicans want in terms
of liability protection.

But what we're hearing, though,
from Democrats, Senator, is that
they're really worried about

people who work in these
high-vulnerability jobs, like at
meatpacking plants, where they

would be at a huge disadvantage,
where they would stand to
lose their jobs -- or, rather,

lose protection and coverage by
their employer if they got sick.

SEN. JOE MANCHIN: Judy, they
have workers comp. All the
people who are working for the

large companies or are
working for any company
has workers compensation
to take care of -- I

mean, yes, workers comp,
in case they get hurt.

We know that. We're worried
about people, basically, that
might go into a store and

says, I contracted
it in your place of
business because your...

JUDY WOODRUFF: Right.

SEN. JOE MANCHIN: ...
your employers weren't
safe enough, you didn't
sanitize enough, things

of that sort. There's a lot
of things we didn't know.

I went ahead and signed onto
that bill with my Republican
colleagues, in the spirit of

bipartisanship, because,
basically, everyone has to give
and take. My reason is, is, they

shortened their time element
from five years to two years,
one year back, one year forward,

not one year back and four
years forward, and made
some other critical changes.

I'm sure it's not good
enough for a lot of people.

But here's the thing, Judy. If,
for some reason, they can't come
to an agreement, and the Senate

and the House Democrats and
Republicans won't agree, then
that stays by itself, because

those two are -- those two
are one bill, liability
and state and local help.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But my...

SEN. JOE MANCHIN: The 748
is the emergency bill, Judy.
That takes care of every need

every American has with their
lifeline for housing, rental,
basically everything that's

needed for you to survive,
get through the worst quarter
of next year, which is going

to be the first quarter.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, as we stand
here tonight, Senator Manchin,
are you -- how confident

are you that that aid bill,
the $748 billion, will pass,
whether or not there's agreement

on the other issues around
liability protection and aid
for state and local governments?

SEN. JOE MANCHIN: Judy, I'm
as confident as I am standing
here talking to you that this

is real.

This language is done. The
bill is -- this is not just a
concept. Two weeks ago, we gave

basically an Outline. That's
all we had was an outline
showing you how we come to 908.

We worked it and worked it
and worked it for the last 30
days, morning, noon and night.

Our staff has been going around.
We have been on Zoom calls
and phone calls continuously

every day.

We have came -- we have come
to this, after a lot, a lot
of discussions, back-and-forth

bantering, talking to our
caucuses respectively, Democrat
and Republican, and representing

them. No one else has
done anything like this.

If the leadership all of a
sudden wants to reinvent the
wheel, that's what they would

be doing. We would hope that
they would say, thank you all
for what you have done, because,

sometimes, they hit an impasse.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well...

SEN. JOE MANCHIN: We were able
to work past that impasse. And
we have a bill. I'm confident.

And if they want to stay
here for Christmas, I
will be right with them.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, we saw the
bipartisanship today. We will
see what the leadership does.

Senator Joe Manchin of West
Virginia, we thank you.

SEN. JOE MANCHIN:
Thank you, Judy.