WASHINGTON — The House passed an historic $1-trillion infrastructure package Friday night and planned to vote to start formal debate on their larger social spending and climate bill, a show of progress on President Joe Biden’s agenda after months of division between centrists and progressives.
A planned final vote on the larger social spending bill was scuttled because a group of moderates — enough to block the measure — refused to support it until they had an official estimate of its economic cost.
The successful vote on the infrastructure bill, which was approved 228 to 206, marks a badly needed show of momentum for Biden’s agenda, which has suffered setbacks because of a deep level of mistrust between centrists and progressives on Capitol Hill.
The vote came about Friday after a grueling week for Democrats, in which their gubernatorial candidate lost in Virginia, and frustrations over the slowing negotiations on Capitol Hill boiled over.
There was a growing sense among rank-and-file members that they needed to move forward on the bills after two previous attempts to schedule the votes failed.
For weeks, progressives blocked a vote on the infrastructure bill as leverage to ensure the Senate took strong action on the social spending bill. On Friday, they agreed to pass the infrastructure bill alone, mindful of the risk if they held out for too much.
“What am I going to do, you know, continue to drag this out?” said Rep. Raul M. Grijalva, D-Ariz. “The risk of doing nothing, to me, is more profound than the sequence” of votes.
The $1-trillion infrastructure bill, which the Senate approved in August, will go to Biden’s desk for his signature. A White House spokesperson said Friday that Biden would sign it.
The infrastructure effort began in late March, when Biden announced plans to push for a much-needed package, something that eluded several of his predecessors.
For months, Biden and Senate Republicans negotiated a roads-and-bridges plan, allowing the president to flex the bipartisan bona fides he championed on the campaign trail.
Thirteen House Republicans joined Democrats Friday in supporting the infrastructure bill. Six House Democrats voted against it.
While the infrastructure bill makes up only a portion of Biden’s agenda, it marks a huge new infusion of money. Infrastructure spending as a share of gross domestic product in the next five years will be about 1.5%, compared with 1.36% during the New Deal years, according to a Brookings Institution analysis of Office of Management and Budget data.
The bill would address a wide range of infrastructure deficiencies and expand the availability of broadband internet throughout the country.
About $110 billion will go to roads, bridges and other major surface transportation projects. Passenger rail will get $66 billion, public transit will get $39 billion, and safety programs for highways and pedestrian walkways will get $11 billion. About $55 billion will go to expanding access to clean drinking water.
While the successful infrastructure vote was hailed by Democrats, the achievement has been overshadowed by the long and messy process to write the social spending measure.
Congressional Democrats and Biden said Friday they would move the bill through the House the week of Nov. 15. But policy disagreements remain over key issues like paid leave and immigration will need to be sorted out as the bill moves to the Senate.
While most major pieces of legislation suffer fits and starts during the legislative sausage making, the frenetic negotiation over these bills has been particularly fraught, a reflection of the slim three-vote margin House Democrats hold.
The delay of the social spending vote in the House until the week of Nov. 15 means it will take longer to go the Senate. It may not be able to get through the chamber until well into December.
With fear of a year-end negotiation in mind, members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who hold significant political sway, urged Pelosi on Friday to hold the two votes as a show of progress. Moderates would only agree to that if the vote on the infrastructure package was held first, according to Democratic sources.
Although progressives allowed the infrastructure bill to pass before the social spending bill was done, they remain worried that moderate Democrats won’t support the current $1.85 trillion package.
With the help of Biden via phone calls, the centrist and progressive camps hatched an agreement in which centrists agreed in writing they would support the social spending bill in a floor vote during the week of Nov. 15 as long as the official cost estimate matches expectations.
While the requirement that the spending estimate must match the White House’s estimate leaves some wiggle room to not vote for the bill, the five centrists, including Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., and Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., said they would work to resolve differences.
The statement’s aim is to assure progressives that the social spending bill would get through the House.
Biden telephoned into a multi-hour meeting Friday of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and asked for its support, “subject to some assurances and commitments (from moderates) that he was working to get,” said Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., before the deal was agreed to. “He’s working very hard to get everybody there.”
Biden has repeatedly promised progressives that he will deliver the votes in the Senate. That will be put to the test in coming weeks.
There is plenty of reason for progressives to be nervous. Centrist Sens. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have already trimmed progressive priorities from the bill and have not publicly committed to supporting the latest version.
(Times staff writer Nolan D. McCaskill contributed to this report.)
