House Democrats to again delay infrastructure vote amid party divisions
The move will mark the second time in two months that House leadership has had to delay the infrastructure vote after a similar scenario played out at the end of September. The reason for the delay is that progressives have made clear they will not support the infrastructure bill unless a larger economic and climate package moves in tandem. That bill has not yet been finalized or publicly signed off on by all Senate Democrats.
Amid resistance from progressives over moving ahead with the Senate-passed infrastructure bill, the House will instead vote Thursday night on a short-term extension of highway funding. It’s unclear for how long the vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill will be delayed.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s office sent a notice that said the vote on the transportation extension would be the last one of the wee. The transportation bill vote is needed to avoid a lapse in funding for transportation projects starting Monday.
Biden appealed directly to House Democrats in a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill Thursday morning, pitching them on a framework for a separate, larger climate and economic package. The infrastructure bill and economic package are key priorities for the President as well as for Democratic members of Congress who want to prove they can govern.
Pelosi’s admonition not to “embarrass” the President came during the closed-door meeting.
The problem for party leaders is that progressives have made clear they do not want to vote for the infrastructure bill unless the larger bill moves in tandem and have said a framework is not enough to win their votes.
The stakes are enormous with Biden making clear privately for more than a week he wants an agreement and passage of the infrastructure bill before he arrives at a UN Climate Conference on November 1. Biden departed for his foreign trip on Thursday.
Biden pitches Democrats, but progressives remain skeptical
During the closed-door meeting with House Democrats, Biden laid out in person long-awaited details of his $1.75 trillion economic and climate package, trying to convince progressives who are skeptical of anything short of a fully written bill and commitments from all 50 members of the Senate Democratic caucus to back his framework.
While Biden’s proposal isn’t finalized in its entirety, days of negotiations have brought it to a place where the key elements are all locked in.
The personal pitch to House Democrats marks a concerted effort by the President to wrest control of an unwieldy process that has led to significant revisions to Democratic goals in the effort to secure the support of centrist Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.
Not all Democrats have signed off on the framework that Biden announced Thursday morning, two people familiar with the plan cautioned, but the President believes it’s a consensus all Democrats should be able to support.
Neither Manchin nor Sinema explicitly committed to backing the plan Thursday, though they both said they were continuing to negotiate after Biden’s meeting with House Democrats.
Sinema reacted to the framework by saying in a statement, “We have made significant progress” and “I look…
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