Bad News for Pelosi on the Budget Reconciliation

House Democrats outside of the progressive “squad” had bad news for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on the $3.5 trillion budget proposal. The nine Democratic lawmakers signed onto the letter are Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Jared Golden (D-ME), Carolyn Bourdeaux (D-GA), Filemon Vela (D-TX), Henry Cuellar (D-TX), Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX), Ed Case (D-HI), Jim Costa (D-CA), and Kurt Schrader (D-OR) penned a letter to Pelosi threatening to squash the budget legislation if the $1.2 trillion infrastructure package is not passed first.

"Some have suggested that we hold off on considering the Senate infrastructure bill for months – until the reconciliation process is completed. We disagree. With the livelihoods of hardworking American families at stake, we simply can’t afford months of unnecessary delays and risk squandering this once-in-a-century, bipartisan infrastructure package,” the lawmakers wrote, per Fox News, adding that they “will not consider voting for a budget resolution until the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passes the House and is signed into law."

New - In letter, nine House Dem moderates threaten to withhold support for their party's budget resolution until Speaker Pelosi changes course and instead allows their chamber to first vote on the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan the Senate approved this week. pic.twitter.com/H5N6oyiV6i

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) August 13, 2021

The move is a major blow to Pelosi, who sought the opposite approach. The speaker hoped to pass the budget reconciliation first before tackling the infrastructure package passed by the Senate.