Pelosi says Biden's infrastructure bill can't wait for social safety net bill
Source: NBC News
The speaker told Democrats that the House will vote Thursday on the infrastructure bill. Progressive lawmakers have threatened to vote it down.
WASHINGTON House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Democrats on Monday that passage of the $550 billion infrastructure bill must not wait for President Joe Biden's multitrillion-dollar safety net bill, saying the larger package is not yet ready for a vote.
In a private caucus meeting, Pelosi, D-Calif., said the party must "make difficult choices," because the dynamics have changed and Democrats have not yet agreed to a spending level, according to a source familiar with the meeting.
"I told all of you that we wouldn't go on to the [infrastructure bill until] we had the reconciliation bill passed by the Senate. We were right on schedule to do all of that, until 10 days ago, a week ago, when I heard the news that this number had to come down," Pelosi said, according to the source. "It all changed, so our approach had to change.
"We had to accommodate the changes that were being necessitated. And we cannot be ready to say until the Senate passed the bill we can't do BIF," she said, using a shorthand for Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework, the source said.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/pelosi-says-biden-s-infrastructure-bill-cannot-wait-social-safety-n1280215
LymphocyteLover
(5,601 posts)droidamus2
(1,699 posts)Probably won't be popular here but my opinion is that this is where the progressive wing of the Democratic party either has to flex the strength or be permanently relegated to the back bench. They have to hold their ground and either the leadership stays with the plan of pass the human infrastructure bill in both houses first or bring it all to a halt.
jimfields33
(15,474 posts)Are you?
LymphocyteLover
(5,601 posts)not Pelosi
Voltaire2
(12,629 posts)Manchin and Sinema have won. As always, the bi-partisan corporate corruption coalition, willing to sacrifice democratic party rule and fiscal stability to preserve the status quo, gets its way.
sigh....
totodeinhere
(13,037 posts)Progressives will continue to fight for this fully funded bill. It may take more time but lets not take our eyes off from the prize.
Budi
(15,325 posts)"We had to accommodate the changes that were being necessitated. And we cannot be ready to say until the Senate passed the bill we can't do BIF," she (Pelosi) said
It's not over & no one won anthing yet.
Its not a win/lose sporting event.
Its how policy has always been introduced & brought to the President's desk in the legislature
This is hardly the 1st tough fight of Pelosi, Schumer & Biden's successful career
KPN
(15,587 posts)My initial gut reaction: uh-oh, here we go again.
Dawson Leery
(19,348 posts)They endorsed the bi-partisan plan while panning BBB.
bucolic_frolic
(42,679 posts)and with inflation surfacing there won't be the stomach for the biggest bills. We only learn of the end result of posturing. They'll keep working on an additional bill. If deflation happens this winter, as forecast, the tide may change for the better.
question everything
(47,271 posts)It will be the crown achievement of the administration in the midterm elections!
qazplm135
(7,447 posts)Versus a few weeks from now?
FBaggins
(26,697 posts)And it isn't part of the continuing resolution that is currently stalled.
qazplm135
(7,447 posts)Sorry but it isn't.
FBaggins
(26,697 posts).
question everything
(47,271 posts)In several weeks the session will end and the 2022 campaigns will start. With the realization that we may lose our majority this is something solid to have.
I dont understand why the leftists insist on coupling both bills beyond showing who is pulling the strings.
qazplm135
(7,447 posts)I see, so you are just happy to see the reconciliation bill fail right?
This is why the "leftists" don't trust the moderates. You want your cake and they can pound sand.
question everything
(47,271 posts)qazplm135
(7,447 posts)There is no "merit." There's two large groups with two sets of goals. One is seeing all of their goals met, one is not, you appear to think that's ok.
qazplm135
(7,447 posts)A few weeks?
What's the urgency? What changes between passing one bill now and two in a month or less?
Unless Pelosi believes there won't be a reconciliation bill at all that passes?
Having said that, this plea is either a recognition she doesn't have the votes and trying to convince progressives to vote, or she thinks she has republican votes and trying to prejustify.
BlueIdaho
(13,582 posts)We dont have weeks to wait - this must pass before the legislative year ends.
qazplm135
(7,447 posts)and it's going to have to include dealing with debt ceiling by mid October ANYWAYS, so what you arguing that Congress won't be in session by then?
Baloney.
BlueIdaho
(13,582 posts)The Congress critters are in Washington far fewer days than you may believe.
BTW - nice attitude.
FBaggins
(26,697 posts)When Pelosi made the deal with moderates to hold the infrastructure vote by yesterday, she expected to receive the Senate bill by the 30th (so that it could be passed early in the new fiscal year). Regardless of which one was brought to a vote first... she expected it to get done.
The infrastructure bill includes ground transportation funding that is otherwise due to expire at the end of the month. Because it was expected to be replaced by the infrastructure bill, it wasn't included in the continuing resolution to fund the government (which, of course, is currently held up because the debt ceiling was attached to it). So she needs the infrastructure bill to pass.
Some may remember the conversation from a month ago. Pelosi was saying that accepting a deal to bring it to a vote by the 27th wasn't really much of a concession... because it had to be voted on by the 30th anyway. The bigger concession was the agreement not to bring the reconciliation bill to a vote until it could pass the Senate. It was right after this that Manchin started talking about a "strategic pause".
Marthe48
(16,692 posts)does it matter if one or both get passed right now?
Seems like r's want to destroy the economy, an American entity I never thought would fail, but I never thought we'd have a plague, or another civil war, or have people who claim to be Americans tearing down our country. Seems like if they can't tear it down in a fair fight, they'll cheat, lie, steal and whore themselves to get a pile of rubble. And then they can stand around acting like they did something to save the U.S.A.
LymphocyteLover
(5,601 posts)they are freaking terrorists
jaxexpat
(6,703 posts)If the Democratic senate and the Democratic house don't pass something by November 2022, for whatever reason, we (you and I) are in for a bad time. It doesn't have to be a perfect bill filled with everybody's favorite, good things. It only needs to be a bill with no bad things in it.
That would be a feat at this point. I hope our Democratic representatives can do at least that.
no more highway funding without major green incentives. Currently they are in two separate bills.
question everything
(47,271 posts)Tom Rinaldo
(22,911 posts)If I were a progressive member of Congress that might be the way I would be leaning. Sure, pass the infrastructure bill on Thursday. Sure, be willing to raise the debt limit if it is bundled into one reconciliation bill. That doesn't mean I wouldn't be open to making some cuts to the Build Back Better bill in order to reach a reasonable compromise with the obstructionist so called moderates, but without a must pass vehicle to carry the bulk of Biden's agenda I simply don't trust that most of it will ever be enacted otherwise. Only the Right plays hardball in America and that to a large extent is why the Right usually wins.
abqtommy
(14,118 posts)Nightowl
(77 posts)As a progressive I am sick of the conservadems expecting the progressives to always give in to their business masters and leave the real people behind. Compromises have already been made and the conservadems just continue asking for more I hope progressives call their bluff this time. If not progressives will have no voice as usual.
honest.abe
(8,556 posts)I think most Republicans dont care about passing any bill under the Biden admin.
Historic NY
(37,449 posts)lets get something passed while we can....and then we have the two other assholes in the Senate. Republicans never talk about other Republicans, Democrats should follow that example.
Lasher
(27,502 posts)We'll be fools if we don't get it through the House. We'll have a whole year after that to pass BIF.
brooklynite
(93,878 posts)They can join with moderates and pass the most expansive infrastructure Bill in decades, giving Biden a win and increasing the chances of holding the House.
Or, they can stand on principle and lose.