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WASHINGTON (AP) – Facing the moderates, House Democratic leaders tried to sideline President Joe Biden’s multibillion-dollar budget plan over a key obstacle, working overnight to facilitate an intra-party confrontation that risks disrupting their national infrastructure program.
Tensions erupted and spread until Tuesday morning as a group of moderate lawmakers threatened to withhold their votes for the $ 3.5 trillion plan. They demanded that the House first approve a $ 1 trillion package of roads, electricity, broadband and other infrastructure projects that have already been passed by the Senate.
Despite hours of negotiations on Capitol Hill, the House chamber came to a halt and plans were turned upside down on Monday evening, as leaders and lawmakers gathered in private to negotiate a deal. Shortly after midnight, leaders announced that no further votes would take place until Tuesday’s session.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pleaded with Democrats in a private caucus not to get bogged down and miss this chance to keep the promises Biden and the party made to Americans.
“Right now we have the opportunity to convey something so important to our country, so transformative that we haven’t seen anything like it,” Pelosi said, according to a person who requested anonymity for disclose private comments.
Pelosi told them it was “unfortunate” that they were discussing the process when they should be debating the policy. “We cannot waste this majority and this Democratic White House by not pushing through what we need to do,” she said.
With Republicans totally opposed to the president’s grand plans, Democratic leaders were trying to find a way out of a potentially devastating deadlock between the moderate and progressive wings of the party that is jeopardizing Biden’s platform.
Pelosi’s leadership has sought to sidestep the problem by persuading lawmakers to conduct a procedural vote to simply kickstart the process and save the political struggle for the months to come, when they develop and debate details as part of the full budget proposal of $ 3.5 trillion.
One by one, powerful committee chairs urged their colleagues to move forward.
“There is a long way to go on the legislative issues that will play out over the next month. But for now, the argument here is: Should the House proceed, ”said Representative Richard Neal, D-Mass., Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.
But it soon became apparent that the moderates were not on board and as soon as a meeting broke a series of other private sessions were called with them for further discussion, including in Pelosi’s office. At one point, bags of takeout were delivered nearby. What had been a night of scheduled votes ended unexpectedly.
Defying their party’s most powerful leaders, nine moderate Democrats signed a letter late last week expressing their objection to pushing forward Biden’s broader infrastructure proposal without first considering the larger public works plan. small which has already been passed by the Senate. Other moderates have raised similar concerns in recent days.
“I am stunned by my party’s flawed strategy of making the passage of the already written, bipartisan popular infrastructure bill conditional on the passage of the controversial partisan reconciliation bill, which ‘has yet to be written,’ Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., a leader of the centrist Blue Dog caucus, wrote in the Orlando Sentinel. “This is bad policy and, yes, bad policy.”
In the tightly divided House, every vote counts and a few dissenters could potentially end the hopes of the Democratic majority to pass a proposal.
With the bulk of Biden’s national agenda at stake, it’s unimaginable that Pelosi, D-Calif., Would allow an embarrassing defeat. This is especially true because the package contains priorities such as childcare, paid family leave and an extension of health insurance which are hard-fought party goals. It also comes as the president is already being criticized for his handling of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The $ 3.5 trillion budget resolution will set the stage this fall for new legislation to fulfill that plan, and committees are already at work to quickly draft how that money would be spent on the social safety net, the environment and other programs over the next decade.
The budget measure is at the heart of Biden’s “Build Back Better” vision to help families and fight climate change and is the top priority of progressives, all largely funded by tax increases on the rich and the big. companies.
Progressives signaled early on that they wanted Biden’s budget priorities first before agreeing to the smaller package, fearing it was an insufficient down payment for his goals.
But the moderates want the opposite, insisting that Congress quickly send the smaller bipartisan infrastructure measure to Biden so he can sign it before the political tide turns. This would see them clinch a victory they could claim in their re-election campaigns next year.
“The House cannot afford to wait months or do anything to risk passing the infrastructure bill,” said Rep. Josh Gottheimer, DN.J. at the end of last week. He is the leader of nine moderate Mavericks who have each issued statements reaffirming the desire for the vote on infrastructure to come first.
So far, the White House has backed Pelosi as she led her party in a well-scripted strategy that aims to keep moderate and progressive lawmakers on board, aiming to pass both bills from here. October 1.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki highlighted Biden’s support for Pelosi’s plans on Monday. Psaki felt it was a “healthy debate” within the party and said it was “a high class issue to have” as Democrats debated the details of the legislation.
Progressives criticize their colleagues, warning they are scrambling Biden’s plans.
Representative Cori Bush, D-Mo., Said the budget “is not a political pawn. This is the opportunity to make our program a reality. She said in a statement: “We are not here to play politics with people’s lives – we are here to adopt transformative policies. “
Republicans have said the $ 3.5 trillion effort Democrats seek to push forward does not resolve “the crisis facing American families” and will lead to higher inflation and deficits.
“The inflation crisis, the border crisis, the energy crisis, the Afghanistan crisis – this budget only makes it worse,” said Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri, Senior Republican of the House Budget Committee.
The conservative House Freedom Caucus has said it opposes both the Biden budget and the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
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Associated Press editors Alan Fram and Jonathan Lemire contributed to this report.
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