House Republicans accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of manufacturing the appearance of progress on Democrats’ go-it-alone social programs spending package of up to $3.5 trillion in order to woo the far-left wing of her party to vote in favor of a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill on Thursday, despite previously linking the two pieces of legislation together.
“She moved this ahead, moved it forward, because she wanted to show some kind of fake momentum with the progressives — that she was still having the reconciliation bill tied in with the infrastructure bill,” Missouri Republican Rep. Jason Smith, ranking member on the Budget Committee, said in a press conference on Tuesday.
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The House Budget Committee held a rare Saturday markup session for Democrats’ budget reconciliation resolution, typically one of the final steps before a bill is brought to the House floor.
But the House resolution is likely to look very different from the final version that Democrats might pass. Negotiations between the White House, congressional leaders, and centrist Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona are still happening. Both Manchin and Sinema, as well as a number of House centrists, have expressed concerns about the size and scope of the reconciliation package. Pelosi conceded on Sunday that it seems “self-evident” that the bill will be less than $3.5 trillion.
“The legislative crisis that’s before her is one by her own creation,” Smith said of Pelosi. “She needs the progressives to bail her out of this situation of this week.”
“When you see Speaker Pelosi’s actions over these last few months, it’s been to massively grow the size of government to appease a radical socialist base,” said House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican.
Pelosi previously said she would deliver both the reconciliation bill and the infrastructure bill out of the House at the same time and had set her committees on a path to do so. Most members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus pledged to vote against the infrastructure bill until a reconciliation bill was passed, and centrist House members demanded an immediate vote on the infrastructure bill, putting Pelosi in a tough spot.
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Now, Pelosi is indicating that the two bills are no longer linked, and she scheduled a vote for the infrastructure bill on Thursday while signaling to the Progressive Caucus that work will continue on the reconciliation bill. As she put it on Tuesday, she hopes to determine the “essence of the Build Back Better” bill before the Thursday vote.
“She has her hands full. We’ll see what happens this week,” Smith said.
