Asked if Democrats had the votes for it to pass, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) simply replied: “Nope.”

 

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Democrats’ agenda hangs in balance as Pelosi, Biden scramble for support on infrastructure vote

Tony Romm  2 hrs ago

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President Biden faces the prospect of a major political setback at the hands of his own party on Thursday, as Democrats clash over a $1 trillion plan to improve the country’s infrastructure in a feud that now threatens its imminent, possible defeat.

© Al Drago/Bloomberg U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, walks with actor Woody Harrelson to the House floor for a vote in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg

After weeks of wrangling, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is preparing to forge ahead with a vote on the proposal, which aims to repair the nation’s roads, bridges, pipes, ports and Internet connections. Its adoption ultimately would send the bill to the president’s desk, after it cleared the Senate on a bipartisan basis last month.

But the expected House vote increasingly appears imperiled: Liberal-leaning Democrats over the past day have reinforced their opposition to the measure, as they wage a broader, still-intensifying war with moderate lawmakers over the fuller size and scope of Biden’s economic agenda. Without their support, the bill would fail in a chamber where Pelosi’s majority is razor thin.

“I’m only envisioning taking it up and winning it," Pelosi said at a press conference Thursday.

Asked if Democrats had the votes for it to pass, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) simply replied: “Nope.”

House liberals exasperated with Manchin and Sinema

The source of the Democratic stalemate is a second, roughly $3.5 trillion package that proposes to expand Medicare, combat climate change and boost federal safety-net programs, all financed through tax increases on wealthy Americans and corporations. Liberals have sought to safeguard the initiative from cuts at the hands of centrists, including Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), and have used the infrastructure bill that the duo helped negotiate as leverage.

In recent days, Sinema and Manchin have huddled with Biden and his top aides to try to broker a truce, hoping to reach a deal that would whittle down the $3.5 trillion proposal to a smaller size that the entire Democratic caucus can support. But those talks so far have produced no resolution, while Manchin has made public his lingering distaste for significant new spending. The developments only have emboldened liberal lawmakers, who departed the Capitol on Wednesday with renewed threats to scuttle the infrastructure package the House had planned to bring to a vote today.

“I just don’t see how she’s going to bring it up,” predicted Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, where roughly half of the 100-member block has threatened to oppose the infrastructure proposal.

Biden sticks to dealmaking strategy - with little tangible progress

Jayapal wagered that number only has grown as lawmakers, including Manchin, have doubled down on their calls for cuts to the second spending package. “I feel very confident that we are pursuing the right track here to deliver the president’s agenda,” she told reporters.

Pelosi, however, has stood her ground, putting the House on track to vote later Thursday.

“We cannot really guarantee what I had hoped in terms of having a more legislative form,” said Pelosi, noting the fact Democrats are unlikely to strike a grand, detailed bargain before they are set to take up the infrastructure proposal. “I think we’re in a good place right now, we’re making progress.”

The chaotic climate on Capitol Hill marked a sharp contrast from what lawmakers had hoped would be a more joyous occasion for Biden, who has viewed the infrastructure proposal as his first major opportunity to score a bipartisan win. Adding to the headache, Republicans are expected to vote against the infrastructure proposal if it does not appear likely to pass, even though they support new public-works spending, as they further try to sour the moment for their Democratic foes.

For Democrats, though, the consequences for failure are great. Party lawmakers secured their slight yet significant House and Senate majorities through championing Biden’s campaign pledge to “build back better” through sizable new investments in the country’s inner workings. A failure to deliver could damage Democrats’ standing in the eyes of voters ahead of the midterm elections in 2022, all the while delaying investments and reforms that Biden and his allies already say are long overdue.

Here's what's in the $1.2 trillion infrastructure package

The House began considering the infrastructure measure on Monday, as Pelosi looked to deliver on a promise she made to moderates in her own party to sidestep an earlier revolt. Those centrists, led by Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), have projected a measure of confidence in recent days, believing that the speaker still can whip the votes — and that some Democrats largely are bluffing when they say they plan to vote against the president’s agenda.

Liberal-leaning lawmakers, meanwhile, had called for delays as they hoped to finalize the second spending package, perhaps even through a Senate vote on the measure. Instead, Biden set out to try to negotiate a deal with Sinema and Manchin, resulting in a flurry of meetings and calls that stretched Pennsylvania Avenue over the past week.

But the talks so far have only revealed the massive gap within the Democratic Party. Manchin and Sinema both appear to have floated at one point less than $2 trillion in spending along with significant new limits on that money, scaling back the universality of programs like free community college. Neither appears to support the exact tax increases Biden seeks, either. Manchin, in particular, also have opposed some of Democrats’ plans to fight climate change, believing that some of the proposals to boost clean energy could hamstring coal producers in the coal-heavy state of West Virginia.

Publicly, though, the two centrists have said little, offering no clear indication as to the size of the package they would support — a silence that only has frustrated liberals. On Wednesday, Manchin opted instead to issue a fiery statement, saying he needed more time to negotiate a smaller package. His comments left many Democrats convinced that no deal is possible in the hours before the House’s infrastructure vote.

“While I am hopeful that common ground can be found that would result in another historic investment in our nation, I cannot — and will not — support trillions in spending or an all or nothing approach that ignores the brutal fiscal reality our nation faces,” Manchin said. “There is a better way and I believe we can find it if we are willing to continue to negotiate in good faith.”