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WASHINGTON – The House is bracing for a much-anticipated vote on a major infrastructure bill that does not appear to have the backing it needs to pass.
President Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Told reporters on Wednesday that she wanted it passed on Thursday, but left wiggle room to delay the vote. The legislation, which was passed by the Senate last month, is being challenged by dozens of progressive Democratic lawmakers, who say they want progress on legislation to strengthen the social safety net, called Build Back Better, to pass. first.
“If this happens before the Build Back Better Act, I think it will be rejected. I know it will be rejected,” said Progressive Rep. Jamaal Bowman, DN.Y., counting among the “no” votes. .
Representative Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., Chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, pledged that more than half of the 95 group members would vote against the infrastructure bill if it came forward before the net bill of security.
The lockdown is the result of a standoff between moderate Democrats, who want to decouple the two measures and quickly pass the $ 550 billion infrastructure bill, and progressive lawmakers, who are delaying it because they fail to do so. not trust the centrists to support the greater one without the smallest.
Jayapal said the problem was with the Senate, especially centrist Democrats Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who did not say what they support or oppose in the 3’s version. , $ 5 trillion from the House.
“They have to come up with their counter-offer, and then we sit down and negotiate from there,” she told reporters on Wednesday.
Centrist Democrats say the infrastructure bill is due to pass Thursday.
Representative Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., Leader of the Blue Dog Coalition, said Democratic leaders “must whip this vote as aggressively as they whip the vote on the budget resolution.”
“If the vote were to fail tomorrow or be delayed, there would be a significant breakdown in confidence that would slow the momentum to move forward with the implementation of the Biden agenda,” she said.
At the heart of the dispute is that progressives believe the infrastructure and safety net bills were part of a comprehensive deal in which each wing of the party could achieve its priority. The centrists say they have never signed such an agreement and want to separate the two bills. Each side needs the other’s votes to pass either bill under very slim Democratic majorities in the House and Senate.
House Republicans don’t plan to offer much help. They are pressuring their members to vote ‘no’ to the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
Representative Tom Malinowski of New Jersey, a moderate Democrat first elected in 2018, said the party should keep its cool and keep going, no matter what on Thursday.
He said the infrastructure bill can come back and be passed, and both proposals should be passed.
“The only thing that matters to my district is that we deliver. They don’t care about the process,” he said. “They don’t care if we do it on September 27, October 29, or October 2. What matters is that we deliver. And Democrats win by being the party that delivers.”
Malinowski told reporters House Democrats were frustrated at not knowing where the Senate was on the bigger bill. Democrats have 50 votes in the Senate and need them all.
“There is frustration. For the negotiation to be successful, everyone has to say what they want,” Malinowski said, adding that “if everyone comes to the table” and says what they can support or object, the Democrats could “come up with a deal very quickly.”
President Joe Biden participated in the talks, meeting and speaking regularly with Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y. He recently called on centrists like Manchin to come up with a price to pay so Democrats can continue.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, DN.Y., a progressive who has said she will not support the infrastructure bill before the backstop package, called on Biden to resolve the dispute, saying he should use “the immense power he has with the executive to really bring the party together and say, we’re going to pass these two bills at the same time.”
“It eliminates internal bickering. It eliminates all of that drama,” she said. “That’s the whole order of the day. We’ll do it all at once, and we don’t have to worry about all these hostage-taking.”
Garrett haake, Haley talbot and Kyle stewart contributed.
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