WASHINGTON – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. vowed Monday to hold a vote next year on a roughly $2 trillion bill to overhaul the country’s health care, education, climate, immigration and tax laws, despite Sunday’s announcement by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., that he could not support President Joe Biden’s signature legislation.

Although the Build Back Better Act cannot pass without Manchin’s support in the evenly divided Senate, Schumer said a vote would put every senator on the record.

“Senators should be aware that the Senate will, in fact, consider the Build Back Better Act, very early in the new year so that every member of this body has the opportunity to make their position known on the Senate floor, not just on television,” Schumer said. “We are going to vote on a revised version of the House-passed Build Back Better Act – and we will keep voting on it until we get something done.”

Schumer’s letter came a day after Manchin delivered what many saw as a potentially fatal blow to one of the centerpieces of Biden’s agenda with his declaration that he “just can’t” support it.

Manchin appeared dug in Monday during an appearance on the MetroNews radio station in West Virginia. Manchin said he has been urging his colleagues to put the bill to a vote and said Democrats overestimated their ability to get him on board.

“I’m not blaming anybody,” he said. “I knew where they were, and I knew what they could and could not do. They just never realized it, because they figured surely, dear God, we can move one person, surely we can badger and beat one person up, surely we can get enough protesters to make that person uncomfortable enough (that) they’ll just say, ‘I’ll go for anything. Just quit.’ ”

“Well guess what, I’m from West Virginia,” Manchin added. “I’m not where they’re from and they can just beat the living crap out of people and think they’ll be submissive.”

During the interview, Manchin also complained about public pressure from White House staffers, saying, “They put some things out that were absolutely inexcusable.”

Asked if he saw a way forward – including breaking the bill up into smaller pieces of legislation – Manchin complained about the legislative process surrounding the Build Back Better Act, saying it was not subject to sufficient scrutiny by committees.

“Don’t you think maybe a committee could put eyes on it, have hearings where the public can see where the differences may be between Democrats or between Democrats and Republicans,” he said. “That’s what hearings are for, and then make a decision.”

Appearing at a news conference Monday in San Francisco, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she was “not deterred at all” by Manchin’s announcement.

Manchin’s announcement Sunday prompted a wave of criticism from fellow Senate Democrats, as well as from the White House.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki unleashed a blistering 712-word written statement accusing Manchin of making a “sudden and inexplicable reversal in his position” and calling his comments a “breach of his commitments” to Biden and Democratic lawmakers, if he has decided to end negotiations.

Schumer’s vow to hold a vote on the bill echoed that of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, who said Sunday that Manchin would “have a lot of explaining to do to the people of West Virginia” about his opposition to the bill.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration said it will raise vehicle mileage standards to significantly reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, reversing a Trump-era rollback that loosened fuel efficiency standards.

A final rule issued Monday would raise mileage standards starting in the 2023 model year, reaching a projected industrywide target of 40 miles per gallon by 2026. The new standard is 25% higher than a rule finalized by the Trump administration last year and 5% higher than a proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency in August.

“We are setting robust and rigorous standards that will aggressively reduce the pollution that is harming people and our planet – and save families money at the same time,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said. He called the rule “a giant step forward” in delivering on Biden’s climate agenda “while paving the way toward an all-electric, zero-emissions transportation future.

The new mileage rules are the most ambitious tailpipe pollution standards ever set for passenger cars and light trucks. The standards raise mileage goals set by the Trump administration that would achieve 32 miles per gallon in 2026. Biden had set a goal of 38 miles per gallon in August.

The standards also will help expand the market share of zero emissions vehicles, the administration said, with a goal of battery electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles reaching 17% of new vehicles sold in 2026. EVs and plug-in hybrids are expected to have about 7% market share in 2023.

The EPA said the rule would not only slow climate change, but also improve public health by reducing air pollution and lower costs for drivers through improved fuel efficiency.

Automakers are “committed to achieving a cleaner, safer and smarter future,’’ but EPA’s final rule for greenhouse gas emissions is more aggressive than originally proposed, “requiring a substantial increase in electric vehicle sales, well above the 4% of all light-duty sales today,’’ said John Bozzella, president and CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation.