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The busy month of July will test the Democratic leaders of Congress – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – who both rule various caucuses and control narrow majorities where only a handful of members could put an abrupt end to the president’s legislative program.
The infrastructure push is expected to speed up in the Senate when the chamber returns to Washington after the July 4 recess.
Schumer set himself an ambitious goal in the next session: to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill – a product that currently enjoys the support of 11 Republicans but still faces resistance from liberal members of the Senate – and push forward a massive budget resolution, a plan that will guide what is included in the Democrats’ broader infrastructure package.
“My intention for this working period is for the Senate to review both bipartisan infrastructure legislation and a budget resolution with reconciliation instructions, which is the first step in passing legislation through the reconciliation process,” Schumer wrote in a letter to a dear colleague on Friday.
During the break, assistants worked tirelessly to transform a legislative framework from the bipartisan infrastructure group into legislation. Sources tell CNN the work is underway, but a source also tells CNN that there is a possibility that Schumer will put the bill to a vote as early as the week of July 19.
At the same time, Democrats are still trying to find consensus on a budget resolution, which will set parameters for the size of their own infrastructure bill and social agenda, as the White House has worked closely to specify what their priorities are. are for this legislation.
During the holidays, Schumer asked Democratic members to come up with a “unitary” budget, which would have the support of all Democrats on the committee. But those efforts were still underway with little indication that the budget would be ready for release before lawmakers returned.
As a result, key members of the Senate Budget Committee are expected to meet early this week to begin fierce negotiations that will pave the way for the reconciliation process to begin. Budget members are expected to complete their work soon on a comprehensive budget resolution that will target the total amount of money Senate Democrats are prepared to spend on a broad reconciliation program.
The proposal will then be sent to the House Budget Committee to use as a framework to begin the formal process of drafting the legislation. By law, all finance bills must originate in the House. According to a collaborator familiar with the process, this week’s negotiations will be “swift and furious,” with the aim of preparing the proposal within days.
What remains an open question is how much negotiators are willing to spend. Vermont Budget Committee Chairman and Senator Bernie Sanders is pushing for a package that could reach $ 6 trillion. However, moderate members of the budget committee hope to agree on a figure of between $ 2,000 billion and $ 3 trillion.
The aide familiar with the negotiations said that while the senators are on the verge of a deal, they have yet to come to an agreement, and it is expected that both sides will give it before the final proposal is finalized. be revealed. Sanders, meanwhile, continues to push publicly for as big a package as possible.
“Senator Sanders is anxious to pass the most significant legislation for workers since the 1930s. Much work has been put into the effort and there is still a long way to go,” Sanders spokesperson said, Mike Casca, in a statement to CNN.
“Senator Sanders has written a $ 6 trillion proposal to address the desperate needs of workers and the existential threat of climate change, and he is confident Democrats will come together around a reconciliation bill that does exactly that. “
In the House, Pelosi also faces competing demands from moderates and progressives.
This position has been hailed by progressives, but some moderate Democrats have called for swift passage in the House of a bipartisan bill as soon as possible. The House Problem Solvers Caucus, a group of Democratic and Republican lawmakers, endorsed the bipartisan framework and called for “a swift and independent vote in the House.”
Representative Pramila Jayapal, Democrat of Washington State and chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told CNN in an interview: “The reality is that these are very thin margins in the House and we do not have the votes to a bipartisan bill as This is our message from the Progressive Caucus We have been very clear on this for some time that we are not going to do one without the other.
On how Pelosi has handled the process so far, Jayapal said: “We are very grateful that she has taken a strong stand on this” and, “I think she has done a very good job of guide us through this and we hope we can all continue to stay on the same page and that our priorities are included. “
Pelosi’s allies are casting cold water on the idea that timing will be an issue for the passage of a bipartisan bill and reconciliation plan, arguing that it is too early to speculate on the a time when a bipartisan deal could authorize the Senate and be ready to act in the House, but that is unlikely to happen anytime soon.
“There isn’t even a bill in the Senate yet. They don’t have a bill. The timetable is moving,” a senior Democratic official told CNN.
As a sign of the progress of the process, Pelosi was asked in a press call Thursday if she had ever seen the legislative text of a bipartisan infrastructure bill and replied: “No, we have not seen any text “.
In his letter to his dear colleague on Friday, Schumer wrote: “Our committees are working tirelessly with the White House and the bipartisan infrastructure group to turn their recent agreement into legislation.”
Democrats will also need a critical mass of Republican support for the bipartisan agreement to get to the president’s office. Problems could arise if Republicans who have expressed support challenge the legislation or the process used by Democrats to move the deal and reconciliation package forward in the coming weeks.
Senatorial Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Biden had “appropriately dissociated” the two issues after the president tried to reverse his earlier remarks when he said he would not sign a bill. bipartite law unless it is associated with a proposal for reconciliation.
But McConnell said Biden needs to make sure Pelosi and Schumer follow his lead and that if that doesn’t happen, the “return of his veto threat would be a hollow move.”
McConnell said Thursday in Kentucky that there was a “decent chance” that the bipartisan infrastructure package would come together in the coming weeks, but signaled that how it is funded could continue to be a point of contention. friction.
“We have increased the national debt enough,” he said, “it should be credibly paid. This discussion is ongoing.”
At the same time, McConnell highlighted the GOP’s opposition to Democrats’ efforts to pass a separate plan along party lines.
“It’s a worthwhile fight. It’s not the right thing for the country to do,” he said of the Democrats’ plans. “I don’t think they have a mandate to do it. And this is all going to unfold here in the next few weeks.”
CNN’s Ryan Nobles and Ali Zaslav contributed to this report.
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