Democrats set Friday vote on infrastructure bill, further delay massive spending bill

 

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Democrats set Friday vote on infrastructure bill, further delay massive spending bill

Rebecca Shabad and Leigh Ann Caldwell and Haley Talbot and Kyle Stewart  43 mins ago

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WASHINGTON — After weeks of trying to build support among House Democrats for two massive spending bills, the party's leadership appeared set on Friday to finally take a vote but ran into another roadblock.

© Provided by NBC News

The House plans to vote Friday on the $555 billion infrastructure bill but will delay final consideration of the $1.75 trillion social safety net bill. The infrastructure bill was already approved by the Senate and would head to the president's desk for his signature if approved.

Instead of voting on the social safety net bill as Democrats had hoped, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a letter to lawmakers that the House instead planned to conduct just a procedural vote.

Lawmakers began the day planning to pass both. But Friday's process slowed down moments after starting. Shortly after 8 a.m., House Republicans made a motion to adjourn — a common move by the minority used to stall the process. But more than six hours later, House Democrats still hadn't ended the vote, an abnormally long time to hold a vote.

Democrats stalled in order to give them more time to convince lawmakers to vote "yes" on the bills and secure more support for the massive funding legislation.

As many as seven moderate Democrats were holdouts on the social safety net bill focused on President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better agenda, two sources told NBC News.

Before they vote for the bill, those lawmakers want the Congressional Budget Office to provide an estimate about how much the legislation is going to cost, which Democratic leaders have made clear would not be ready by Friday.

A senior Democratic aide said that it could take weeks to calculate. Two estimates released Thursday weren’t enough to assuage the moderates’ doubts about adding to the nation’s deficit. A new White House estimate that said the bill was "fully paid for” and the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that the Build Back Better bill would raise $1.47 trillion from new taxes.

The skeptical group of Democrats included Reps. Stephanie Murphy, of Florida, Ed Case, of Hawaii, Jared Golden, of Maine, Kurt Schrader, of Oregon, Abigail Spanberger, of Virginia, Kathleen Rice, of New York and Carolyn Bourdeaux, of Georgia.

The lawmakers met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday morning, but two sources suggested they were “very dug in.”

On Thursday, Biden called numerous House members to garner support. In public remarks, he called on the House to vote "right now."

For months, Democrats have encountered obstacles negotiating these two bills because of the intra-party divisions between moderate and progressive lawmakers. Leaders have had to postpone votes on the infrastructure package several times because of the insistence by progressives that they only vote on it in tandem with the Build Back Better bill.

Pelosi said at her weekly press conference Thursday that she was “very unhappy” that the House didn’t pass the infrastructure measure last week.

“We're going to pass both bills, but in order to do so, we have to have votes for both bills,” she said.