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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has set a new deadline in the House to pass a major infrastructure spending bill after a week of negotiations left the social and environmental policy overhaul plan of Joe Biden in limbo.
In a letter to House Democrats on Saturday, Pelosi said the House would have until Sunday, October 31 to pass the bipartisan $ 1 billion infrastructure bill, which was passed by the Senate in August.
Progressive Democrats in the House have refused to vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, despite pressure from their moderate counterparts, as leverage in negotiations on a separate bill that contains massive spending on many campaign pledges of Biden, including increased access to child care and action on climate change.
“It took longer to reach our goal of passing both bills, which we will do,” Pelosi said in the letter.
Biden and the Progressive Democrats have advocated a redesign plan costing $ 3.5 billion, but centrist Democrats have refused to accept the cost. West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, a key centrist in the negotiations, proposed a $ 1.5 billion package, a significant reduction from Biden’s original plan.
Refusing to agree on such a low price, Progressive Democrats in turn said on Friday they would delay voting on the bipartisan infrastructure bill until an agreement was reached on the plan. overhaul.
“We made all these promises to voters across the country that we were going to keep this program. This is not a mad leftist wish list, ”Pramila Jayapal, Congressional Progressive Caucus chair and key House negotiator, told the Seattle Times on Friday.
Centrist House Democrats have indicated they are frustrated with the delay in voting on the infrastructure bill, Josh Gottheimer, one of the House’s top centrists, blaming Pelosi and the Progressive Democrats for having blocked a vote on the infrastructure bill.
“We cannot let this small far left faction… destroy the president’s agenda and stop the creation of 2 million jobs a year,” Gottheimer said in a statement.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday morning before boarding a flight to his home in Delaware, where he is staying for the weekend, Biden said he will “work like hell” to sell his plan directly. to the American people over the next month, educate Americans on what they have in mind for the plan.
“I will try to sell what I think the American people will buy,” he told reporters. “I believe when the American people are aware of what’s in there, we will.”
Reflecting on the smoldering anger between progressives and centrists in his party, Biden said, “Everyone is frustrated. It’s part of being in government, of being frustrated.
During a rare visit to Congress, Biden told House Democrats in a private meeting on Friday that he was determined to push through both bills, even if it means a lower price for his bill government overhaul. Biden reportedly said compromise revenue could be anywhere between $ 1.9 billion and $ 2.3 billion.
“Even a smaller bill can make historic investments – historic investments in child care, child care, clean energy,” Biden told House Democrats, according to a person familiar with his words.
In addition to negotiations over the overhaul, Democrats in Congress are trying to find a way to raise the debt ceiling to prevent the United States from defaulting for the first time in history. Republicans have indicated they will not vote to raise the debt ceiling.
On Saturday, Biden told reporters he hoped Republicans were not “to the point of refusing to raise the debt ceiling.”
“It would be totally unacceptable. Never done before. And so I hope that doesn’t happen, ”he said.
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