A large faction of House liberals is threatening to derail President Joe Biden’s economic agenda by voting against a critical infrastructure bill Democrats hope to pass this week.
More than half of the 95-member House Progressive Caucus will vote against the $1.2 trillion infrastructure package that Speaker Nancy Pelosi planned to bring up for a vote later this week. The group is insisting that the House and Senate first pass a $3.5 trillion social welfare spending bill that is not yet written and lacks full support among Democrats.
‘TOXIC’: AHEAD OF BRITNEY SPEARS HEARING, SENATORS EXAMINE CONSERVATORSHIPS
The infrastructure measure now lacks the votes to pass.
“It will fail,” Rep. Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat, said following a closed-door meeting with party lawmakers Tuesday. “We had an agreement that we were going to get these two pieces.”
Despite the mounting opposition, Democratic leaders have not abandoned plans to call up a vote on the infrastructure package.
The bipartisan bill passed the Senate earlier this year, and Biden is eager to sign it into law, which would allow him to promote a major victory for his administration and the Democratic Party. It would pay for roads, bridges, water projects, expanded broadband, and new electric vehicle charging stations.
Democrats are hoping to win over enough reluctant liberals to pass the infrastructure bill by showing by the end of the week that there is an agreement on top-line spending and a framework for the social welfare spending package.
“What we are hoping to get this week is a number and a framework,” Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said Tuesday.
“That will give confidence to some of our members,” to vote for the infrastructure bill, he added.
Schakowsky and other liberals said they may accept a framework and an agreement on how much the party will spend on the package. But as of Tuesday, Senate Democrats were still hashing out major differences.
Two centrist Democrats met with President Joe Biden in an effort to hammer out an agreement on what they would be willing to accept.
Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona say the proposed $3.5 trillion package is too expensive and they object to other policy provisions in the package.
Manchin proposed waiting until next year to consider the spending package.
Democrats are hoping Biden can persuade Sinema and Manchin to agree to support passing a spending package in the near future, even if it means lowering the cost to win them over.
“I think there is a real effort to come up with a top-line number,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, told reporters.
Democrats want the measure to pay for a broad array of new government programs and assistance, including an extension of the child tax credit, free preschool, free community college, expanded Medicaid and Medicare benefits, paid family and medical leave, and new green energy policies aimed at ending the use of fossil fuels.
As the infrastructure vote looms, liberals are becoming more entrenched in their opposition. Many are concerned Manchin and Sinema will never support the social welfare spending bill if Democrats simply pass the infrastructure measure alone.
In a statement Tuesday, House Progressive Caucus Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal, a Washington state Democrat, repeated a threat that more than half the Progressive Caucus won’t vote for the infrastructure bill if Democrats simply present a framework.
“As our members have made clear for three months, the two are integrally tied together, and we will only vote for the infrastructure bill after passing the reconciliation bill,” Jayapal said Tuesday.
Other Democrats Tuesday said they believed the House could come up with the votes to pass the infrastructure bill.
“I never underestimate Nancy Pelosi,” Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat, said after the closed-door caucus meeting.
Lee said Democrats will have to decide whether to pass the infrastructure bill and then “hope” the social welfare package eventually gets a vote.
“That is something I will have to deliberate on,” she said.
Across the Capitol, a group of liberal senators called on Pelosi to uphold an earlier promise to vote on the social welfare spending package and the infrastructure bill together, ensuring both make it across the finish line.
“I remember hearing the speaker describe one big package and everything would move together,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, said. “I expect her to meet that obligation.”
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, a Vermont Independent and socialist, took to Twitter to call on House Democrats to vote against the infrastructure package, directly countering the efforts of Pelosi and other House Democratic leaders hoping to push the measure across the legislative finish line.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“No infrastructure bill should pass without a $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill,” Sanders tweeted. “That is the agreement that was made & that is the agreement that must be kept. Physical infrastructure is important, but the needs of working families & combating climate change is more important.”
Pelosi dismissed the Sanders tweet.
“We are actually making some good progress here, so we are just focusing on that,” Pelosi said.
