Pelosi delays vote on Biden’s infrastructure bill
in defeat for Democrats
Democrats say holdup is temporary despite stalemate
over Biden’s sweeping economic agenda
Progressives have withheld their support for an
infrastructure bill until an agreement can be reached to enact Biden’s full
economic agenda.
Lauren
Gambino in Washington
@laurenegambino
Fri 1 Oct
2021 04.45 BST
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/30/biden-nancy-pelosi-infrastructure-bill
The US
House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, postponed a planned vote on a $1tn infrastructure
bill on Thursday night in a stinging defeat for Democrats after progressives
revolted, withholding their support until an agreement could be reached to
enact the full sweep of Joe Biden’s economic vision.
The
decision capped a frantic day of negotiations in Washington that stretched late
into the evening, as the president and Democratic leaders attempted to break a
stalemate between a handful of moderates, who pushed for the infrastructure
vote, and progressives who believe it would be insufficient without a broader,
$3.5tn social policy package.
“A great
deal of progress has been made this week, and we are closer to an agreement
than ever,” said the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, after the House
announced there would not be a vote on Thursday. “But we are not there yet, and
so we will need some additional time to finish the work, starting tomorrow
morning first thing.”
Democrats
insisted that the setback was temporary, but the delay underscored the fragile
state of the negotiations as a pair of Senate holdouts demanded the president
dramatically shrink the more expansive legislation containing many of the
party’s top policy priorities. The House was slated to reconvene on Friday,
giving Democrats at least another day to attempt to reach an agreement that
would satisfy the feuding factions.
Both pieces
are critical to Biden’s economic vision. He spent weeks personally courting
Republican senators to secure a bipartisan victory on the infrastructure bill,
which would invest $1tn in upgrading roads, bridges and broadband. But he has
staked his presidency – and his legacy – on the passage of the mammoth social
policy bill that would expand healthcare, make childcare more affordable,
establish paid federal leave and combat the climate crisis, paid for by tax
increases on wealthy Americans and corporations.
In a
vaguely worded letter to colleagues on Thursday night, Pelosi called it a “day
of progress”.
“Discussions
continue with the House, Senate and White House to reach a bicameral framework
agreement to Build Back Better through a reconciliation bill,” she wrote.
“All of
this momentum brings us closer to shaping the reconciliation bill in a manner
that will pass the House and Senate,” she said, concluding the letter with the
promise: “More to follow.”
The delayed
vote was a significant blow for Pelosi, a self-described master negotiator who
insisted earlier that Democrats were “on the path to win” the infrastructure
vote. “This is the fun part,” she boasted to reporters on Thursday, referring
to the final, chaotic stretch before securing a major legislative achievement.
Yet with
only three votes to spare, and Republicans largely opposed, Pelosi was unable
to untangle the competing promises made to progressives and centrists in time
to vote on Thursday.
In an
effort to placate a small band of centrist Democrats, Pelosi promised to bring
the infrastructure bill to the House floor for a vote this week. But
progressives had long maintained that they would only support that bill if it
passed in tandem with the far more expansive $3.5tn package.
When it
became clear on Thursday that the Senate was not prepared to pass the
legislation as written, progressives stood by their threat to tank the
infrastructure bill, which they saw as leverage for ensuring Biden’s entire
economic vision was enacted.
The fate of
Biden’s agenda remains in limbo, and with Democrats deeply at odds, it was
unclear on Thursday night how they planned to progress.
The terms
of the negotiations were largely driven by two Democratic holdouts in the
Senate, who are opposed to the current size of the spending package. On
Thursday, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia said he would not support a
spending package that exceeded $1.5tn, less than half of the size of the
proposal being pushed by Biden and most of the Democratic party.
Amid the
negotiations and with only hours to spare, Congress passed legislation to avert
a government shutdown at midnight on Thursday, with Biden later signing a
measure that would fund the federal government through 3 December.
The measure
was passed by the House and Senate with bipartisan support, though a
significant number of Republicans voted against it.
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