Nancy Pelosi: Democrats Will Pass $1tn Infrastructure Deal This Week
- The Guardian, Sept. 26, 2021. - Speaker says she will work to build consensus on Biden’s separate $3.5tn social agenda, which has caused division within the party. -
The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said on Sunday Democrats will pass a $1tn bipartisan infrastructure bill this week. She also said she would work to build consensus on Joe Biden’s separate $3.5tn social spending agenda, which has caused divisions within the Democratic party.
“Let me just say that we’re going to pass the [infrastructure] bill this week,” Pelosi told ABC’s This Week. “I’m never bringing a bill to the floor that doesn’t have the votes.”
The infrastructure deal has been placed in jeopardy by a split between moderate and progressive Democrats over the $3.5tn spending plan, which addresses party priorities including healthcare, childcare and the climate crisis. Moderates want the infrastructure bill passed first. Progressives want to tie the bills together. Fights with Republicans over government funding – set to run out on Friday – and raising the debt ceiling have made Pelosi’s job still tougher.
“First of all,” she told ABC, “we have to make sure … we keep government open. And we will. Second of all, we have to honour the vision of President Biden.” Pelosi had promised moderates a vote on the infrastructure deal on Monday but it will almost certainly now come later. The House will reconvene late in the day. Democrats have slim majorities in Congress and must unite if they are to overcome Republican opposition to the $3.5tn spending plan, known as the Build Back Better Act.
Pramila Jayapal of Washington state, a leading progressive, told CNN’s State of the Union: “I know we’re working very hard to get agreement on the reconciliation package [the process needed to pass the spending plan by simple majorities] and that of course has to be agreement across the Senate and the House because we are not going to leave anyone behind.” She also said Pelosi did not have the votes to pass the infrastructure deal on Monday. “The speaker is an incredibly good vote counter,” Jayapal said, “and she knows exactly where her caucus stands.”
Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, a leading House moderate, pronounced himself satisfied, saying: “We’ve been working for months since April on this bipartisan infrastructure plan...
- More,
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/26/nancy-pelosi-democrats-infrastructure-deal-spending-plan
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi holds a rally in support of President Joe Biden's ‘Build Back Better’ for women agenda, at the Capitol in Washington on 24 September. (Photo: J Scott Applewhite/AP).
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