Pelosi Delays Social Spending Invoice; Plans Vote on Infrastructure – CBS San Francisco

WASHINGTON (AP) – Top Democrats abruptly postponed an expected House vote on Friday on their $ 1.85 trillion ten-year social and environmental measure as the struggle between progressives and moderates re-emerged as the pillar of the president’s domestic agenda Distracted Joe Biden.

To give him the victory he needed, leaders were still preparing to push an accompanying package of $ 1 trillion in road and other infrastructure projects through the chamber and to his desk. But even the fate of this popular bill designed to create jobs in all states was questionable.

The messed up plans put a new face on a party that has been struggling for weeks to take advantage of its control of the White House and Congress by advancing its top priorities. That was difficult, in part because of the low Democratic majorities as bitter internal divisions are forcing House leaders to miss several self-imposed deadlines for voting.

“Welcome to my world,” House spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Told reporters, adding, “We are not a lock-step party.”

TO UPDATE: House of Representatives Approves $ 1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill passed by the Senate

Democratic leaders had hoped the House of Representatives would approve both measures on Friday, bringing double triumphs to a president and a party that recover from this week’s deflationary elections and want to show they can rule.

The party’s gubernatorial candidates were defeated in Virginia and squeaked through in New Jersey, two blue-leaning states. Democrats can hardly afford to be in disarray a year before the midterm elections, which could result in Republicans regaining control of Congress.

The president and first lady Jill Biden delayed their plans to travel to their home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Friday night so he could try to break the traffic jam. He spoke to House leaders, moderates and progressives, said a White House official, who described the talks on condition of anonymity.

Instead of approving the Infrastructure Bill to give Biden a chance at a winning lap, a group of progressives threatened to vote against it. They have long been calling for the two bills to be voted on jointly in order to put pressure on the moderates to support the larger, more expansive social measure.

With the Democrats only losing three votes and able to prevail in the narrowly divided house, Pelosi said she would move forward anyway, saying she “felt pretty good” about the support.

Pelosi has refused to vote on bills for years unless she had any certainty that they would go through to avoid embarrassing defeat.

Democrats’ day shattered when, after hours of discussion, half a dozen moderates insisted they would vote against the massive package of health, education, family and climate initiatives unless the congressional bipartisan budget bureau first put forward its cost estimate for the measure.

Democratic leaders said it would take days or more. With Friday’s delay and legislators’ plans to leave town for a week-long hiatus, it could mean budget estimates are ready by the time the vote is taken.

Adjusted the party’s timetable for the final passage of the $ 1.85 trillion measure to reflect political reality, Pelosi said that once the CBO numbers are in, “we will have a Thanksgiving present for the American people” .

In a letter to her colleagues announcing the new voting plan, she wrote: “The agenda we are advancing is transformative and historic, and therefore challenging.”

The infrastructure move smoothly cleared the Senate in August with bipartisan support including support from Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. The package would allocate huge sums to each state for freeway, mass transit, broadband, airport, drinking and sewage, power grids, and other projects.

But it became a pawn in the long struggle for leverage between the progressives and moderates of the Democrats. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., Who heads the 95-member Congressional Progressive Caucus, said the bipartisan joint White House and Congress tax committee provided all the tax information lawmakers needed to draft the sweeping bill.

“If our six colleagues still want to wait for a CBO score, we would give them this time – after that we can vote on both bills together,” she wrote. That strongly suggested that at least some progressives would vote against the infrastructure bill on Friday.

Early Friday, when Biden met reporters to present a strong monthly job report, he said he would “make some calls” to lawmakers. He said he would ask them “to vote yes to these two laws now”.

The House’s approval of Biden’s larger measure would send her to the Senate, where she would face certain changes and more democratic dramas. This is mainly due to the demands of Sens. Joe Manchin from West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona to contain the costs of the measure and to curb or stop some of their initiatives.

Pelosi met with Hispanic lawmakers late Thursday who wanted the immigrants to stay in the US as much as possible. However, your chances of taking bold action are limited by the strict regulations of the Senate. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, DN.Y., said Friday that they had discussed other bills to move the issue forward and saw Pelosi as an ally.

Pelosi’s strategy seemed to be geared towards getting the most robust social and climate legislation possible, leaving it to the Senate to change or drop parts that its members disagree with. Because of Manchin and Sinema, the 2,100-page size was cut to about half the original $ 3.5 trillion.

Republicans reject the measure as too expensive and harmful to the people.

The package would help large numbers of Americans pay for health care, child-rearing, and home care for the elderly. There would be lower prescription drug costs as Medicare would be able, for the first time, to negotiate lower prices for some drugs with drug companies, a long-term Democratic priority.

The package would provide about $ 555 billion in tax breaks to promote cleaner energy and electric vehicles. The Democrats added important provisions in the last few days and re-established a new program of paid family vacations and work permits for immigrants.

Much of the cost of the package would be covered by higher taxes for wealthier Americans and large corporations.

Manchin has planned the new family vacation program, which is expected to include four weeks of paid time off, less than the original 12 weeks.

The Senators are also likely to remove a just-added immigration rule that would allow 7 million immigrants in the country to apply for up to two five-year work permits.

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