WASHINGTON — House Democratic leaders are proposing to "deem" a resolution committing the chamber to vote on the Senate-passed infrastructure bill by late September as part of a separate rule that would unlock the budget reconciliation process for $3.5 trillion in new domestic spending and tax breaks.
If accepted by a group of 10 centrist holdouts on the underlying budget blueprint, a separate resolution would be tucked into the rule for floor debate on the infrastructure bill and voting rights legislation.
The initial resolution said the infrastructure bill would be considered in the House "not later than" Sept. 28, but that target date's been changed to Sept. 27, according to House Rules Chairman Jim McGovern, D-Mass. He said during his panel's session Tuesday morning to consider the revised rule that the date wasn't binding, however.
"Nothing in life is a total guarantee," McGovern said.
If that schedule holds, it would mean a vote on the infrastructure bill days before current surface transportation program authorizations are set to expire, as well as government-wide agency funding, on Oct. 1.
It also likely assumes a vote the week of Sept. 20 on the reconciliation bill that House committees are expected to complete by Sept. 15 under the terms of the budget resolution. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has committed to progressives that the chamber won't vote on the Senate's infrastructure bill until the reconciliation bill for President Joe Biden's fiscal policy agenda passes.
The $3.5 trillion package is expected to contain funding for assorted programs like paid family leave, two years of free community college, clean energy subsidies, Medicare expansion, a pathway to legal status for undocumented immigrants and more. But it wasn't yet clear whether that still-unwritten broader package would have the votes to pass in either chamber, despite the reconciliation process affording Democrats the opportunity for simple majority passage in the Senate, rather than the usual 60-vote threshold.
The moderates who balked at taking up the earlier rule have said they won't vote for the budget resolution until the House first votes on the infrastructure package. On Monday, party leaders proposed to simply "deem" the budget as adopted as part of the rule, sidestepping a separate vote on the budget.
The rule also would switch off a standing House rule that automatically sends a debt limit suspension measure to the Senate upon adoption of a budget resolution; moderates have been wary of Democrats carrying the debt limit vote on their own without GOP support.
But late Monday the talks broke down because the leadership offer didn't explicitly guarantee a vote on the infrastructure bill by a date certain as part of the rule itself; rather, the language simply said "it shall be in order" at some point to take up the measure.
"I’m sorry that we couldn’t land the plane last night, and that you all had to wait. But that’s just part of the legislative progress," Pelosi told Democrats during a closed-door caucus meeting Tuesday morning, according to an aide who heard the comments. "I think we’re close to landing the plane."
The new resolution, offered by Massachusetts Rep. Katherine M. Clark — the fourth-ranking Democrat and assistant speaker — and Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Peter A. DeFazio, D-Ore., doesn't specifically make it order for any member to call up the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which passed the Senate earlier this month on a 69-30 vote. But it would put the chamber on record committing to a target date, something the centrist holdouts have asked for.
It wasn't immediately clear whether the offer would be accepted. Walking into a closed briefing on the Afghanistan situation, two of the moderate holdouts — Henry Cuellar of Texas and Jim Costa of California — said they were "optimistic" and "upbeat" about the state of play on the budget and infrastructure measures.
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(Paul M. Krawzak and Laura Weiss contributed to this report.)
