Opinion | Permitting Reform? ‘I Didn’t Shake Hands’

Now that President Biden has signed his party’s tax, climate and IRS bill, Sen. Joe Manchin’s narrative is that a grateful Democratic Congress will move to repay his vote with permitting reforms. That’s what party leaders promised, he says. Yet the West Virginia Senator’s leverage is already gone.

Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva is saying he feels no “obligation” to support a permitting payoff for Mr. Manchin. “I didn’t shake hands,” he told the Hill newspaper. “I wasn’t part of the negotiations.” Mr. Grijalva added that he and a handful of colleagues intend to ask that permitting changes be brought up in the House for a separate vote, not tied to the next government funding bill that could be a vehicle for reform to get past progressives.