A Happy Jayapal: Biden Fully Endorsed Two-Track Plan

Jayapal told reporters after the meeting with President Biden that he fully endorsed keeping the bipartisan infrastructure plan and reconciliation package linked.

“Look, he said ‘I support the BIF entirely and if I could do it right now I would, but we need to get this reconciliation bill and you know it’s gonna be tough, like we’re gonna have to come down in our number and we’re gonna have to do that work,'” she said.

“The President said we’re gonna get both bills done and in order to get BIF done, we have to get this agreement on the reconciliation bill,” she added.

Rep. Chuy Garcia (D-IL) told reporters that he feels “great” after the meeting with Biden, adding that the progressive message all along has been to uphold Biden’s plan. He said that the President did not push for a BIF vote today or over the weekend, but did warn the group that they’d likely have to come down from $3.5 trillion on reconciliation.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/live-blog/bidens-two-track-infrastructure-plan-is-back-on-track

KATE RIGA 5:09 p.m.

Sinema is considered a moderate Democrat and was identified as the 47th most conservative member of the Senate in a 2019 analysis by the nonpartisan organization GovTrack.us.[4][5] During the 116th Congress, she voted with President Donald Trump's position roughly 25% of the time, the second-most of any Democratic senator to serve during the full term.[6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyrsten_Sinema

Jayapal Says She’s Spoken To Sinema, Who’s ‘Very Engaged’

The progressive leader told “Meet the Press” that she talked to Sinema about infrastructure last weekend.

“I do think she’s very engaged,” Jayapal said. “I know she cares about climate, and I know she cares about some of these other things.”

The Democrat said that she’s “going to assume the best of” Sinema and Manchin “and say that we need both of them.”

“Just like we need every single member of the House,” Jayapal added, noting that her chamber only has a three-vote majority.

CRISTINA CABRERA
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1:57 p.m.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/live-blog/bidens-two-track-infrastructure-plan-is-back-on-track

labelling a bill "bipartisan used to mean that the majority in both parties supported it.

But over the years that standard has eroded to the point if you get a handful of the opposing party to support a bill it gets labelled "bipartisan", but it's actually not.

Well, often times NEGOTIATIONS are best carried out behind close doors.

Just to avoid people retreating to entrenched positions as we have all seen this past week.

Often a frank and free exchange is expediated by doing it privately. But of course all results should be made public and positions can and should be aired once private negotiations are concluded, one way or the other.

"Failure to act will condemn the United States to become a weaker, sicker, and poorer America. The most catastrophic damages will fall upon our kids. For our economy, our communities and our future, we must pass the Build Back Better Act."

KATE RIGA
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4:24 p.m.

A Non-Progressive In The House Is A No On BIF Without Reconciliation First

Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY) put out a statement Wednesday saying that Congress cannot move on the bipartisan infrastructure bill without a “clear path forward” in the Senate on the reconciliation package.

“Failure to act will condemn the United States to to become a weaker, sicker and poorer America,” he wrote. “The most catastrophic damages will fall upon our kids. For our economy, our community and our future, we must pass the Build Back Better Act.”

Read his full statement here:

CRISTINA CABRERA
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2:16 p.m.

Another Crucial Deadline: The Congressional Baseball Game

There’s a congressional baseball game at around 7 p.m. ET tonight, and naturally this whole “trying to keep the government from collapsing” thing will have to find a way to work around that.

No, really. Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) told reporters that the chamber might vote on a short-term funding bill tonight “or maybe late afternoon, we got the congressional baseball game.” Then he said the vote “probably gets pushed to tomorrow.”

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/live-blog/we-have-no-idea-whats-gonna-happen-either-bloggin