Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, was trying to line up support, including from Mr. Manchin, to beef up a federally paid family and medical leave provision that had been whittled down to just four weeks from 12.
Senator Raphael Warnock, Democrat of Georgia, threatened to withdraw his support for the bill if, as expected, it dropped a provision that would expand health coverage for the working poor in a dozen states like his that have refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, was still furious over the refusal of a handful of Democrats to give Medicare broad powers to negotiate prescription drug prices.
But overall, liberal Democrats were trying to make their peace with a stripped-down bill that would turn a once-expansive vision for social transformation into a series of short-term measures — many of which would expire under a Republican Congress if history holds and the president’s party loses seats in next year’s midterms.
“I’d rather we put programs out there, and if people like them, then we should continue them as a government, and if for some reason they’re not popular, well, then that also helps make some determinations,” said Representative Mark Pocan, Democrat of Wisconsin and a leader of the progressive House Democrats.
Representative Pramila Jayapal, Democrat of Washington and the head of the Progressive Caucus, struck a pragmatic note: “Look, the thing is, we would have been done with a very different bill a month ago if we only needed 90 percent of us, but that’s not the case. We need 100 percent of us.”
Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, acknowledged that the package would not contain everything that Mr. Biden wanted, but, she said, “The alternative to what is being negotiated is not the original package; it is nothing.”