Pelosi reportedly asked vulnerable House Democrats to remind colleagues how terrible failure would be

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) Convened her caucus for a closed-door meeting Monday night to prepare for what a House Democrat described as “hell week.” Worst case scenario, Democrats end the week with the rejected bipartisan infrastructure bill, their (less than) $ 3.5 trillion Build Back Better package dead on arrival, and the government partially shut down, with a limited time and options to avoid default. in about two weeks.

Democrats are unlikely to allow a government shutdown, but a standoff between a handful of centrist and progressive Democrats could very well derail President Biden’s national agenda. Pelosi said in the 90-minute meeting that the House would still vote on the Infrastructure Bill (BIF) on Thursday, even without a commitment from die-hard centrists to back the emerging BBB package, which Pelosi said will also be less than the $ 3.5 trillion sought by Biden and most other Democrats.

At Monday night’s meeting, Pelosi “and a list of Congressional allies – including some of the House’s most vulnerable candidates – pleaded for unity among the increasingly discordant liberal and moderate ranks. party “, The Washington Post reports. The vulnerable 2022 incumbents, “colloquially known on the Hill as the” frontliner, “” stressed that “they share their goal of pushing through Biden’s agenda” and “that the failure of either another bill would be much more consequential of a loss.

Progressives later said they could still cash in on the infrastructure bill on Thursday without significant movement on the BBB package, but there is “relaxation in Democratic negotiations.” Politics reports. “The progressives have stopped insisting on $ 3.5 trillion in spending; they focus less on revenue and more on the programs that go into the plan. The moderates, meanwhile, have made it clear that they are in favor of a reconciliation bill – just one with a much smaller price tag. “

Still, the Senate’s most vocal centrists, Joe Manchin (DW.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) – who attends a fundraiser launched for her on Tuesday by business lobbyists fiercely opposed to the BBB package. , The New York Times reports – are vague. “What is blocking everything is a few senators who give us no details on where they will end up landing,” said House Democratic caucus chair Hakeem Jeffries (DN.Y.). “This is the problem we are facing right now, and we must try to resolve it in the next few days.”

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