Joe Manchin suddenly seems to influence everything Washington does. The West Virginia senator says he wants to make Congress ‘work again’ Ledyard King, USA TODAY © BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI, AFP via Getty Images U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin speaks on the phone before a meeting with Senate Democrats on Capitol Hill in January 2018. FARMINGTON, W.Va. – For more than nine hours, Joe Manchin wouldn't budge and the fate of President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill hung in the balance. The Democratic senator from West Virginia opposed the bill's inclusion of a $400-per-we...