Democrats will have more time to find an agreement on President Biden’s vast domestic policy package, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, who announced on Sunday night that the House will vote on a bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure measure on Thursday night.
Government funds, as well as major transportation programmes covered in the infrastructure plan, are set to expire on Oct. 1, providing legislators with a limited window of opportunity to pass a measure before the deadline.
Following the threat of voting against a budget blueprint required to advance the party’s signature $3.5 trillion social policy and climate change bill unless they were assured of an expedited vote on the infrastructure bill, which was passed by the Senate last month, Ms. Pelosi decided last month to holding a vote on the regulations by Monday.
The infrastructure package will not be supported by progressive legislators unless the $3.5 trillion plan to offer massive new expenditures in education, health, child care, paid leave, and climate initiatives is passed by Congress. That package has not been finished as of yet.
It was Ms. Pelosi’s announcement that the House would try to pass the infrastructure bill later in the week that demonstrated how difficult the task that Democratic leaders face is as they work feverishly to find a compromise that will allow them to move forward with President Biden’s priorities.
According to a White House source familiar with the talks, President Biden and officials of his cabinet met with legislators over the weekend in an attempt to push the two legislation through the legislative process to completion.
Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona and Democratic Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington reiterated their commitment on Sunday that liberal legislators would not back the infrastructure package unless it was accompanied by movement on the $3.5 trillion proposal.
Conservative Republican Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, one of the most prominent centrists in the House who is negotiating with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said that progressives had made a hollow threat by issuing the ultimatum.
On Monday, Democrats in the Senate will take up discussion of an emergency funding measure that is necessary to prevent a government shutdown from occurring. GOP members of the House of Representatives are likely to vote against the bill in a procedural vote because it includes legislation that would raise the federal government’s borrowing ceiling. Only Democrats voted in favour of the measure, which cleared the House.
