In the aftermath of the House passing a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill after months of delay, disappointed progressive Democrats known as the “Squad” are scrambling. The hope is that Congress will move in a meaningful fashion on the other half of President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda.
“I’m really concerned,” New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of six Democrats who voted against the bill over objections about the process, said in an Instagram Live video the day after the bill passed. “Part of me does think that the Build Back Better Act in some form or another will be passed. Will it be recognizable from where it was on Monday? I’m not sure. It was already cut down to four weeks of paid leave — it was already cut down to, you know, a lot.”
Members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus for nearly three months withheld support for the Senate-passed infrastructure bill so they could use it as leverage in negotiating with centrists on Democrats’ go-it-alone social programs spending bill. They forced House Speaker Nancy Pelosi twice to delay votes on the infrastructure bill, and Biden traveled twice to Capitol Hill to lobby for his legislative agenda.
As negotiations progressed, the progressives made compromises. A plan that started at $3.5 trillion over 10 years and was scaled back to just under $2 trillion, more in line with what centrist Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona could accept. They settled for moving both the bills in the House back to back rather than waiting for the Senate to first pass the Build Back Better Act, even though the bill’s content could change further in the Senate.
But on the day that Congress was set to vote on both bills, more centrist Democrats hit the brakes. They wanted to see a Congressional Budget Office “score” of the Build Back Better bill’s budgetary impact before voting on it, which could take weeks. So leadership proposed voting on only the infrastructure bill and a procedural resolution for the Build Back Better bill, which enraged progressives.
“My progressive colleagues and I were consistently clear for months that we intend to move both the Build Back Better Act and the physical infrastructure bill together and vote for them at the same time,” New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman said after the infrastructure vote, which he was against. “My conservative colleagues moved the goal post.”
Pelosi left open a vote on a Republican-made motion for more than seven hours while she tried to work out the snag, setting a record for the most extended House vote in the modern Congress.
Congressional Progressive Caucus leadership eventually agreed: Five centrist Democrats made a statement saying they would vote for the bill no later than the week of Nov. 15, when initial CBO estimates are expected.
But that was not good enough for the six progressive Democrats, who voted against the infrastructure bill in protest. It only passed due to 13 Republicans voting for the bill, defying House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
Republicans will not come to Democrats’ rescue on the Build Back Better bill, though, and trust between centrists and those on the far Left is low. Agreements and timelines have been broken numerous times during the monthslong negotiation process.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he would like to pass the Build Back Better bill in his chamber before Thanksgiving, but that timeline seemed more feasible when House votes on both bills were expected on the same day.
“Let’s hope they don’t move the goal post, break their pledge and actually help us pass the Build Back Better bill,” Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar tweeted of House centrists on Wednesday. “They wanted the win of decoupling the bills, and now we will see if they want the win for the American people.”
Without leverage in the form of the infrastructure bill, the six on the Squad have little means to pressure their colleagues to stay on schedule — other than their metaphorical megaphones and armies of followers.
Missouri Rep. Cori Bush named the five centrists who signed the statement in a tweet, noting that they “publicly committed to voting for the Build Back Better Act by the end of next week.”
“They and Sens. Manchin and Sinema cannot continue blocking this bill,” Bush said. “Let’s make Build Back Better law by Thanksgiving.”
