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WASHINGTON – President Nancy Pelosi of California said on Sunday evening that the House would vote Thursday on a bipartisan $ 1,000 billion infrastructure bill, giving Democrats more time to reach consensus on the broad policy agenda interior of President Biden.
The vote will come hours before government funding – along with key transportation programs addressed in the infrastructure bill – ends on October 1, leaving lawmakers with a narrow margin for error.
Ms Pelosi pledged last month to hold a vote on the legislation by Monday, after a group of centrist Democrats threatened to vote against a budget bill needed to pass the party’s signature on social policy $ 3.5 trillion and the climate change bill unless they are promised a quick vote on the infrastructure measure, which the Senate passed last month.
But progressive lawmakers have vowed not to support the infrastructure bill until Congress acts on the $ 3.5 trillion plan to deliver vast new investments in education, health, care. children, paid holidays and climate programs. This package is not yet complete.
Ms Pelosi’s announcement that the House would aim to pass the infrastructure bill later in the week reflected the difficult task facing Democratic leaders as they feverishly try to find a compromise for move Mr. Biden’s agenda forward.
“I never introduce a bill that does not have a voice,” Ms Pelosi said of the infrastructure bill on “This Week” on ABC Sunday.
Mr Biden and members of his cabinet met with lawmakers over the weekend in a bid to push the two bills past the finish line, according to a White House official familiar with the discussions .
With a very slim majority, Ms Pelosi can only lose three votes for the social policy plan, and Senate Democrats hope to pass it using the fast-track budget process known as reconciliation to shield it from obstruction. House Republicans have urged their members to oppose the $ 1 trillion infrastructure package, so more than a few defections can sink that bill.
Representative Pramila Jayapal, Washington Democrat and chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, again pledged on Sunday that Liberal lawmakers would only support the infrastructure bill if it was accompanied by action on the 3,500 plan. billions of dollars.
“The speaker is an incredibly good vote counter, and she knows exactly where her caucus is, and we’ve been very clear about that,” Ms. Jayapal said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “The votes are not there.”
But Representative Josh Gottheimer, a Democrat from New Jersey and one of the House’s top centrists negotiating with Ms Pelosi, suggested the progressives had issued an empty threat.
“It is a key part of the president’s agenda,” Gottheimer said on “State of the Union”. “I just don’t buy at the end of the day that people will vote against.”
In the Senate on Monday, Democrats will also consider an emergency spending program needed to avoid a government shutdown. Republicans, who oppose it because it contains legislation that would lift the limit on the federal government’s borrowing capacity, are expected to block the measure in a procedural vote. The bill passed the House with only Democratic votes.
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