It's going to be a busy week for the House of Representatives. As Cristina Marcos highlighted for The Hill, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Sunday night specified Thursday, September 30 as the day the House will vote on the infrastructure bill. The date was revealed a "Dear Colleague" press release. As the press release mentions, Thursday is when the surface transportation authorization expires.
As recently as earlier on Sunday, there had been some confusion as a result of disunity from Democrats as on when the vote would take place.
Initially, it was thought that infrastructure would come up for a floor vote on Monday. Both Speaker Pelosi and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, made Sunday show appearances where the date came up.
During her appearance on ABC's "This Week" Pelosi told host George Stephanopoulos that "it may be tomorrow."
While on CNN's "State of the Union," though, Rep. Jayapal was clear with host Jake Tapper that "I don't believe there will be a vote," meaning for Monday, as "the votes aren't there."
There has been mistrust between progressives and moderate Democrats when it comes to the reconciliation bill, which is seen as a representation of Biden's Build Back Better agenda, and infrastructure. Thus, the bill is seen as tied together by the progressives, as a matter of leverage to get infrastructure passed.
As Marcos wrote:
A group of Democratic centrists had previously secured an agreement with Pelosi that the House would vote by Sept. 27 on the bipartisan infrastructure bill to send it to President Biden for his signature.
But House progressives have long maintained that they wouldn’t vote to pass the bipartisan bill before their priorities are addressed in the larger social spending package, which includes provisions like paid family leave, universal pre-K, free community college, and initiatives to address climate change.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, last week said Sept. 27 was an “arbitrary deadline,” adding that “it’s just an attempt to pass one bill and leave behind the bill that has the majority of the president's agenda.”
Since the social spending package is still incomplete as of Sunday, it wasn’t clear that the bipartisan bill could pass in the House on Monday without the progressives’ votes. Jayapal has said nearly 50 members of her caucus won't vote for the infrastructure bill before the social spending package.
Although the infrastructure passed with Republican votes last month in the Senate, Republican leadership in the House will be whipping votes against the bill.
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