Summary
I’m signing off of the Guardian blog here on the West Coast, here’s what went on throughout the day:
- Joe Biden went to Capitol Hill for a closed-door conversation with House Democrats to talk about what it would take to get his infrastructure bill signed. Despite Nancy Pelosi’s vow, the vote still wasn’t held today. But Biden insists the timeline is secondary to the content of the bill, “It doesn’t matter whether it’s in six minutes, six days, or six weeks. We’re going to get it done,” Biden said upon leaving the Capitol.
- California became the first state to require vaccinations for its kindergarten through 12th grade students. The ways school districts choose to deal with Covid-19 has made board meetings a fertile battleground where parent-led protests have turned chaotic. We’ll see how California parents react to the mandate in the coming weeks.
- A beachfront property was returned to descendants of the Black couple who bought it in the early-1900s. Bruce’s beach in Los Angeles was seized in 1924 and left vacant. California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill that would give the land back to the family from which it was taken.
- Democrats remain at odds over the details of Biden’s larger infrastructure bill, which contains a host of progressive priorities. Democrats are trying to score a major legislative victory with razor-thin majorities in both chambers. Failure would deny Biden much of his domestic agenda, leaving the party with little to show for their time controlling the White House, the Senate and House.
Read the entirety of the Guardian’s coverage of the busy day on Capitol Hill here.
Updated
House speaker Nancy Pelosi confirms that there will not be a vote on Biden’s infrastructure bill tonight. In a statement, Pelosi says her caucus needs more time.
“While great progress has been made in the negotiations to develop a House, Senate and White House agreement on the Build Back Better Act, more time is needed to complete the task. Our priority to create jobs in the health care, family and climate agendas is a shared value,” she wrote.
Updated
Drug manufacturer Merck says their experimental drug cuts the risk of hospitalization and death from Covid by half. If more data confirms what Merck found during their clinical trial the pill could be available within months and would be the first pill that can be used to effectively treat Covid-19.
In a story for the Guardian today Hannah Devlin explains:
The data from the study was made public in a press release on Friday and has not yet been peer-reviewed. However, an independent group of medical experts monitoring the trial recommended stopping it early because the interim results were so encouraging.
Read the rest of her coverage of the promising new medication here:
Updated
Ozy, a digital media startup founded by former MSNBC anchor Carlos Watson is shutting down after operating for eight years.
The company’s business practices and treatment of employees had been called into question by the New York Times and CNN in the days leading up to the announcement of the closure.
Last weekend the NY Times ran a piece with details of a meeting where it appeared that a top executive from Ozy pretended to be a Youtube executive to get an investment from Goldman Sachs.
Read the full story here.
Then yesterday CNN ran a piece with accounts from former Ozy staff who recall being understaffed and egregiously overworked.
That piece is here.
More than 85 years after Bruce’s beach was taken from the Black family who owned it, their descendants have successfully gotten the land back in their hands.
In the early 20th century, the small beachfront property in Los Angeles was a safe haven where Black Americans could bask in the sun without racist harassment and discrimination. But it was seized from Charles and Willa Bruce by the government in the 1920’s and left vacant.
This week California Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation returns the land to the family.
“There are other families waiting for this very day, to have their land returned to them,” Patricia Bruce, a cousin of Willa and Charles Bruce, told the Associated Press.
Read the Guardian’s original coverage of Bruce’s beach here:
Updated
An 18-year-old who was shot by a Long Beach school police officer is going to be taken off of life support. The woman, identified as Mona Rodriguez, was shot by an officer while riding in a car that was leaving the scene of an altercation.
Rodriguez, the mother of a five-month-old, was declared braindead on Thursday. Luis Carrillo, the Rodriguez family’s attorney, spoke with my colleague Sam Levin earlier this week about the incident. Carrillo wants the officer to be arrested and charged with murder or manslaughter.
“Everything went wrong. You don’t shoot at a car that is leaving a location … And you should not have armed officers dealing with kids,” he said.
Read the rest of Sam’s coverage of the incident here:
Updated
Today California became the first state in the nation to require all public school students to be vaccinated.
The ways schools deal with Covid have led to intense, potentially violent clashes that have made school board meetings ground zero for conflicts between parents and public officials.
Read the Guardian’s news story about California here.
And for more insight into the new controversies school boards across the US are facing read this deep-dive from Julia Carrie Wong written in August.
Updated
Hello, this is Abené Clayton reporting from Los Angeles. Scant details from Biden’s closed-door session with House Democrats are coming out from political reporters in DC. I’ll be updating the blog as more details are released.
Biden discussed a topline RANGE between $1.9 trillion - $2.3 trillion, sources tell @sarahnferris and me
— Heather Caygle (@heatherscope) October 1, 2021
Dems had been hoping to get Manchin/Sinema to agree to something around $2.1 trillion, we've previously reported
Manchin has been firm at $1.5t
Updated
Today so far
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Abené Clayton, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Joe Biden met with House Democrats on Capitol Hill to discuss the negotiations over the infrastructure bill and the reconciliation package. Leaving the meeting, the president said the timeline of the infrastructure bill’s passage was unimportant, likely suggesting the House vote on the proposal will not be happening today. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s in six minutes, six days, or six weeks. We’re going to get it done,” Biden said.
- Biden’s meeting came one day after House speaker Nancy Pelosi delayed a planned vote on the infrastructure bill. The Democratic speaker said late last night that she expected to hold the vote today, but progressives remain opposed to the legislation unless the reconciliation package advances at the same time.
- Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she wanted to see a Senate vote on the reconciliation package before supporting the infrastructure bill. Democratic leaders are working to reach an agreement on the framework of the reconciliation package, but Ocasio-Cortez said that would be insufficient to win her support on the infrastructure bill, likely further delaying the House vote.
- Supreme court Justice Brett Kavanaugh tested positive for coronavirus. The conservative justice is not experiencing any symptoms and has been fully vaccinated since January.
Abené will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
'It doesn't matter when' infrastructure bill passes, Biden says
Joe Biden argued that the timeline for approval of the infrastructure bill is unimportant, expressing confidence in the legislation’s ultimate passage.
Exiting his meeting with House Democrats on Capitol Hill, Biden said, “We’re going to get this thing done.”
.@POTUS: "We're going to get this done. It doesn't matter when. It doesn't matter whether it's in six minutes, six days, or six weeks. We're going to get it done."https://t.co/wZt81HtcYb pic.twitter.com/JP44eE5ujs
— CSPAN (@cspan) October 1, 2021
Asked by reporters when that might happen, the president replied, “It doesn’t matter when. It doesn’t matter whether it’s in six minutes, six days, or six weeks. We’re going to get it done.”
That answer will likely displease the moderate members of the House Democratic caucus, who had hoped for a final vote today on the infrastructure bill.
After delaying the vote yesterday, House speaker Nancy Pelosi said the chamber would take up the bill today, but that is seeming less and less likely.
Updated
Joe Biden’s meeting with House Democrats on Capitol Hill wrapped up after about 30 minutes, according to the White House press pool.
Leaving the meeting, congressman Mike Quigley told Politico that the president urged Democrats to compromise in order to get both the infrastructure bill and the reconciliation package passed.
But it remains very unclear whether the House will hold a final vote on the infrastructure bill today. It doesn’t appear that Biden drew a hard line on a deadline for the vote.
“I think the number one message was, if you don't compromise, you get zero,” says Rep. Mike Quigley of Biden’s message to the caucus. He didn’t take questions, he says
— Nicholas Wu (@nicholaswu12) October 1, 2021
The Congressional Progressive Caucus will hold its own meeting after the full House Democratic caucus meets with Joe Biden, per Punchbowl News.
NEW — Congressional Progressive Caucus (@USProgressives) will have their own meeting after the full caucus meeting.
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) October 1, 2021
They have also banned phones from this gathering.
The chair of the CPC, congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, has repeatedly said that progressives want to see a Senate vote on the reconciliation package before supporting the infrastructure bill.
It’s unclear whether Biden might try to convince progressives to change their stance. Stay tuned.
The Guardian’s David Smith and Lauren Gambino report:
Republicans who had supported the bipartisan infrastructure bill in the Senate acknowledged the setback after the House vote on the legislation was delayed yesterday.
In a statement today, the Republican senator Mitt Romney, who voted for the infrastructure bill, called the delay a “profound disappointment”.
“It is unacceptable that a major piece of bipartisan legislation, which is vital to our economy and necessary to keep important transportation programs going, is being held hostage by the most extreme House Democrats for a completely unrelated and still unwritten piece of legislation. What a profound disappointment, and how unfortunate to put politics over what is good for our country,” he said.
The House is scheduled to leave Washington at the end of this week for a two-week recess but this could be delayed if no deal has been reached. Congress must also find a way to raise the debt ceiling to avoid the US defaulting for the first time in its history.
Biden arrives on Capitol Hill for infrastructure talks
Joe Biden has now arrived on Capitol Hill to meet with House Democrats for the negotiations over the infrastructure bill and the reconciliation package.
And President Biden has arrived, didn’t take questions going in pic.twitter.com/bwL9ZYtBU5
— Heather Caygle (@heatherscope) October 1, 2021
The president walked into the Capitol with House speaker Nancy Pelosi and then greeted majority leader Steny Hoyer before walking to the caucus meeting.
Biden did not take any questions from reporters as he arrived on Capitol Hill, although he offered a thumbs up to reporters who asked whether he believed Democrats would reach a deal today.
The caucus meeting is now getting underway. Stay tuned.
Joe Biden is now en route to Capitol Hill to meet with House Democrats, according to the White House press pool.
The president is bringing several of his senior advisers, including Steve Ricchetti and Cedric Richmond, with him to Capitol Hill to discuss the negotiations over the infrastructure bill and the reconciliation package.
Richmond, who left Congress earlier this year to join the Biden administration, also attended the House Democratic caucus meeting on Wednesday.
As Joe Biden travels to Capitol Hill to meet with House Democrats, progressive senator Bernie Sanders is seeking to reframe the delayed vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
“The mainstream media has it wrong. Delaying the infrastructure vote won’t be a ‘setback’ for Biden,” Sanders said on Twitter.
“It will be a major step towards passing the most transformative piece of legislation since the New Deal. There can be no infrastructure bill without a strong reconciliation bill.”
The mainstream media has it wrong. Delaying the infrastructure vote won't be a "setback" for Biden. It will be a major step towards passing the most transformative piece of legislation since the New Deal. There can be no infrastructure bill without a strong reconciliation bill.
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) October 1, 2021
House progressives have similarly argued for the importance of the vote delay, emphasizing that Democrats must deliver on their promises to provide major investments in childcare, healthcare and climate initiatives.
“We need to be real: Are we going to deliver universal pre-K to this country or not? Are we going to expand health care to our seniors and include vision and dental or not?” congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said this morning.
“That’s what we need to know. And I know we’re all committed to the same goal.”
Updated
Jen Psaki also announced at her daily briefing that Joe Biden will be traveling next week to promote his Build Back Better agenda.
The White House press secretary did not provide many details on the president’s trip, but she said he would likely be away from Washington for one to two days.
Biden had been scheduled to travel to Chicago this week to promote his pandemic response policies, but he canceled the trip to focus on the negotiations over the infrastructure bill and the reconciliation package.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki downplayed the disagreements among congressional Democrats over the size and scope of the reconciliation package.
“Compromise is necessary. It’s inevitable. Some have come down, some have come up in the numbers,” Psaki said.
And when reporters pressed Psaki on the purpose of Joe Biden’s trip to Capitol Hill this afternoon, she said, “The president is not going there to litigate the legislative path forward. He’s going there to make the case for how these two packages can help the American people.”
The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, is now holding her daily briefing, ahead of Joe Biden’s meeting with House Democrats on Capitol Hill.
Asked what Biden hopes to achieve with his visit to Capitol Hill, Psaki said, “He’s going over there to make the case for his legislative agenda.”
The press secretary deflected when asked if she believed the House will hold its final vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill later today.
“I’ll leave that to Speaker Pelosi,” Psaki said.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reiterated that she is focused on the content of the reconciliation package more than the top-line cost of the bill.
“It’s not about the number, it’s about impact,” the progressive congresswoman said on Twitter.
It’s not about the number, it’s about impact.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) October 1, 2021
These are our conditions in NYCHA. No winter heat, black mold, kids poisoned by lead.
Politics-as-usual makes communities like mine politically disposable. “We can do it later” does nothing for them. They deserve details & answers. https://t.co/jOjptf5lys pic.twitter.com/p91WUn9gKA
Ocasio-Cortez noted that her constituents living in New York’s public housing complexes are currently dealing with black mold, a lack of proper heating and the risk of lead poisoning.
“Politics-as-usual makes communities like mine politically disposable. ‘We can do it later’ does nothing for them. They deserve details & answers,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
The US government went into Thursday embroiled in a game of three-dimensional chess, with time running out and trillions of dollars at stake.
The first dimension was a must-do: fund the government by midnight. In a typical shutdown, hundreds of thousands of federal employees stop getting paid and many stop working; some services are suspended and numerous national attractions and national parks temporarily close.
The second dimension is an even bigger must-do: raise the national debt ceiling, an artificially imposed borrowing limit, before an estimated deadline of 18 October. Failure would see the US default for the first time in history. The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has warned that the effects would be “cataclysmic” and cost 6m jobs.
The third dimension is not quite a must but it feels that way to Joe Biden and Democrats: pass a $1tn bipartisan infrastructure bill and a $3.5tn partisan package that expands social services and seeks to tackle the climate crisis. Both are stalled by divisions between Democratic centrists and progressives, along with Republican eagerness to deny Biden a win.
Why have things gotten so sticky?
Progressive congressman Jared Huffman criticized his colleagues for leaking to the press as House Democrats held their caucus meeting this morning.
“Far more unity than ‘disarray’ among House Democrats right now, though our caucus meeting today was a master class in eloquent ambiguity,” Huffman said on Twitter.
“That’s necessary in part because one of our members is live-leaking to @JakeSherman because they apparently like the disarray narrative,” Huffman added, referring to a congressional reporter for Punchbowl News.
Far more unity than "disarray" among House Democrats right now, though our caucus meeting today was a master class in eloquent ambiguity. That's necessary in part because one of our members is live-leaking to @JakeSherman because they apparently like the disarray narrative.
— Rep. Jared Huffman (@JaredHuffman) October 1, 2021
In a separate tweet, the congressman said, “Let me be really clear: I love most of my colleagues, but that particular live-leaker is a schmuck. And a coward.”
Reporters spotted cell phone holders being positioned outside the room where House Democrats will soon meet with Joe Biden, likely indicating they won’t be allowed to take their phones into the room in order to cut down on press leaks.
The president is expected to meet with Democrats in a couple hours, so stay tuned.
Ahead of Joe Biden’s trip to Capitol Hill, a Washington Post reporter spotted rows of cell phone holders being positioned outside the room where the president will be meeting with House Democrats.
These are cell phone holders. Usually used outside secure intel briefings for House members.
— Paul Kane (@pkcapitol) October 1, 2021
Now positioned outside Dem meeting room (HC5).
Members might be forbidden from bringing phones into 2nd caucus later today. pic.twitter.com/D6e0Y52uUe
House Democrats met this morning, and caucus leaders expressed frustration after many of the details of their conversation were immediately leaked to reporters.
Now it looks like members may not be allowed to bring their cell phones in, theoretically to limit the chance of press leaks (or at least delay the leaks until the meeting ends).
Biden to travel to Capitol Hill to talk infrastructure with House Democrats
Joe Biden will make the short trip to Capitol Hill this afternoon to talk to House Democrats, the White House has just said.
The president’s visit comes as negotiations continue over the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the reconciliation package, two key pieces of his economic agenda.
As of now, it remains unclear whether the House will be able to hold its final vote on the infrastructure bill today, as speaker Nancy Pelosi has promised.
Stay tuned.
Samuel Alito has become the latest US supreme court justice to defend the panel’s political independence, labeling criticism of recent ultra-conservative decisions including a tacit approval of an abortion ban in Texas as attempted intimidation.
Alito’s speech at the University of Notre Dame on Thursday echoed comments from Amy Coney Barrett and Clarence Thomas, fellow conservatives who insisted their decisions were not guided by political beliefs.
Coney Barrett chose the McConnell Center in Kentucky for remarks delivered next to Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate minority leader for whom the venue is named.
As majority leader, McConnell blocked Merrick Garland, Barack Obama’s pick for a court seat, for almost a year, then installed three Donald Trump picks in record time, including Barrett, whose confirmation came eight days before Trump’s defeat.
The court, Barrett insisted, “is not comprised of a bunch of partisan hacks”.
“Supreme court justice Amy Coney Barrett expressed concerns that irony is dead,” a Yale law professor, Scott Shapiro, tweeted in return.
Rudy Giuliani’s admission under oath that Donald Trump’s claim of voter fraud in the 2020 election is baseless will help Republicans “lose the midterms” just as admitting there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq cost them control of Congress in 2006, a Trump White House and Trumpworld insider said.
MSNBC reported Giuliani’s deposition in Coomer vs Trump Campaign, a defamation case in which it has been shown that the campaign knew its claims about Dominion Voter Systems were false.
Last November, Giuliani stood with the attorney Sidney Powell as she told reporters Dominion worked with actors including Venezuela and George Soros to help Joe Biden steal the election. In response, Dominion sued Powell, Giuliani and Mike Lindell, another Trump ally.
No evidence has been produced to back up Trump’s claims about voter fraud.
In passages of a deposition by Giuliani quoted by MSNBC host Rachel Maddow on Thursday, Giuliani says he cannot remember which social media platform the claims came from; that he did not “lay eyes on” any other evidence for the claims; and that he did not speak to a witness he has claimed in public to know of.
“It’s not my job in a fast-moving case to go out and investigate every piece of evidence that’s given to me,” the former New York mayor turned Trump attorney said. “Otherwise, you’re never going to write a story.
“Why the heck wouldn’t I believe him? I would have been a terrible lawyer to say, ‘Let’s go find out if it’s untrue.’ I didn’t have the time to do that.”
Giuliani’s work for Trump has contributed to his suspension from practicing law in New York and Washington DC and other blows including a reported ban from Fox News, also sued by Dominion in a case in which Fox News has filed a motion to dismiss.
But Trump’s “Big Lie” about voter fraud dominates Republican politics, fuelling biased, fruitless but politically potent election “audits” in key states, most prominently Arizona, and legislative action to reduce voting among Democratic-leaning groups.
Speaking anonymously, the Trump insider said admissions that such actions were based on lies was “how you lose midterms. Pandering by admitting.
“Caving on WMD cost us 2006 and caused the financial crisis. It’s happening again.”
The Bush administration sold the invasion of Iraq as necessary to find and destroy weapons of mass destruction which might be used in another 9/11.
In August 2006, as US casualties mounted, George W Bush told reporters: “The main reason we went into Iraq at the time was we thought he had weapons of mass destruction. It turns out he didn’t.”
He also said Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi dictator, had “nothing” to do with the attacks on New York and Washington on 9/11 – a link the administration was previously happy to make.
In November, Democrats took both houses of Congress for the first time since 1994.
Most observers pin the financial crisis of 2008-09 on decades of deregulation by politicians on both sides of the aisle and reckless, largely unpunished Wall Street behaviour.
Updated
Joe Biden has wished a happy 97th birthday to Jimmy Carter, who was president between 1977 and 1981.
Biden tweeted: “Happy 97th Birthday to my dear friend, President Jimmy Carter. A humble servant of God. A beacon of light and moral clarity. A leader of extraordinary character, honor, and integrity. [Jill Biden] and I send our love to you and Rosalynn [Carter] on this special day.”
The president accompanied the tweet with a picture taken in the Oval Office when Carter occupied it and Biden was a young senator from Delaware. The picture was signed by Carter, “to my friend Joe Biden”.
Happy 97th Birthday to my dear friend, President Jimmy Carter. A humble servant of God. A beacon of light and moral clarity. A leader of extraordinary character, honor, and integrity. @FLOTUS and I send our love to you and Rosalynn on this special day. pic.twitter.com/LB0gSvHSNC
— President Biden (@POTUS) October 1, 2021
Plenty of commentators have sought to compare Biden’s young presidency with that of Carter, who lost the White House to Ronald Reagan after four difficult years.
I’m one of them, having asked the billionaire Carlyle Group founder, history nerd and Carter administration alum David Rubenstein about it only last month. Here’s what he said, with the bold bit in the middle rather telling given what’s currently occurring on Capitol Hill:
“Remember, Biden was the first senator to endorse Carter [in 1976]. They had a very close relationship.
“Carter struggled throughout his presidency with lots of things that didn’t quite work out but we can go back in hindsight and look at all the things he did in four years. It’s dizzying when you think about it today. We’re happy if we can get one major bill through Congress in a year. And those days, we were getting bills left and right. And Carter, papers criticized him, said we’re getting too many things done. But he got a lot done.
“But for years he wasn’t able to project the image that he wanted, of strong leadership. And I think the inability to get the hostages out [of Iran] was fatal in his getting re-elected.”
Full piece here:
Updated
Today so far
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- House speaker Nancy Pelosi delayed yesterday’s planned vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill. The Democratic speaker said late last night that she expects to hold the vote today, but progressives remain opposed to the legislation unless the reconciliation package advances at the same time.
- Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she wanted to see a Senate vote on the reconciliation package before supporting the infrastructure bill. Democratic leaders are working to reach an agreement on the framework of the reconciliation package, but Ocasio-Cortez said that would be insufficient to win her support on the infrastructure bill, potentially further delaying the House vote.
- Supreme court Justice Brett Kavanaugh tested positive for coronavirus. The conservative justice is not experiencing any symptoms and has been fully vaccinated since January.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Brett Kavanaugh tests positive for Covid-19
Justice Brett Kavanaugh has tested positive for Covid-19, the supreme court announced Friday, just three days before the court is set to begin a new term hearing oral arguments in key cases relating to religion, guns and abortion.
The court said Kavanaugh, 56, is showing no symptoms of the virus and has been fully vaccinated against Covid since January.
As a precaution, Kavanaugh and his wife did not attend a Friday morning event for Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the newest member of the court, to take the oath of office in a so-called investiture ceremony.
The announcement that one of the nine justices on the bench, which is balanced 6-3 in favor of conservatives, comes days after a slim majority of five justices declined to block restrictive Texas abortion measures.
Read the Guardian’s full report:
Pramila Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, echoed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in saying that the Senate needs to vote on the reconciliation package before the House passes the infrastructure bill.
“I have consistently said that we need a vote in the Senate,” Jayapal said as she entered the House Democratic caucus meeting this morning.
“I want to make sure that there are no delays, that there are no mix-ups, that there are no mixed understandings about what the deal is.”
REPORTER: Is there going to be a resolution at the end of this [meeting]?
— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) October 1, 2021
JAYAPAL: No, I don’t think there’s going to be any resolution. Look, the resolution is not here in this caucus. The resolution is with two senators and the rest of the 98% of the Democratic caucus. pic.twitter.com/btWnIU4DDM
But Jayapal added that she is “open to hearing” other options on the path forward, although she sounded skeptical about passing the infrastructure bill based solely off a framework for the reconciliation package.
“I am very concerned about legislative language holding things up, vote-a-rama changing the deal, and those are the things that have to be addressed along with the content,” Jayapal said.
Although she is feeling “positive” about the prospects for passing both bills, Jayapal said she did not believe that the final deal would be reached in this morning’s caucus meeting.
“No, I don’t think there’s going to be any resolution,” Jayapal said. “Look, the resolution is not here in this caucus. The resolution is with two senators and the rest of the 98% of the Democratic caucus.”
Those two senators would be Democratic moderates Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, who have said they will not support the reconciliation package with its current price tag of $3.5tn.
AOC says she wants Senate vote before supporting infrastructure bill
Democratic leaders are working to reach an agreement on the framework of the reconciliation package, including a top-line cost for the bill.
But some House progressives, including congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are saying that a framework will not be sufficient to win their votes on the infrastructure bill.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ:
— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) October 1, 2021
“We need to be real: Are we going to deliver universal pre-K to this country or not? Are we going to expand health care to our seniors and include vision and dental or not? Are we going to invest in housing … or not? That’s what we need to know." pic.twitter.com/PKal7VjClg
“We need a vote,” Ocasio-Cortez said this morning. “We need to be real: Are we going to deliver universal pre-K to this country or not? Are we going to expand health care to our seniors and include vision and dental or not?”
She added, “That’s what we need to know. And I know we’re all committed to the same goal.”
Other House progressives may have different expectations, but as of now, it looks like enough Democrats agree with Ocasio-Cortez to prevent the infrastructure bill’s passage until the Senate votes on the reconciliation package.
And when might a Senate vote on the reconciliation bill happen? That remains very unclear.
Democrats insisted that the infrastructure vote delay was temporary, but the setback underscored the fragile state of the negotiations as a pair of Senate holdouts demanded the president dramatically shrink the reconciliation package, which contains many of the party’s top policy priorities.
Both pieces are critical to Joe Biden’s economic vision. He spent weeks personally courting Republican senators to secure a bipartisan victory on the infrastructure bill, which would invest $1tn in upgrading roads, bridges and broadband.
But he has staked his presidency – and his legacy – on the passage of the mammoth social policy bill that would expand healthcare, make childcare more affordable, establish paid federal leave and combat the climate crisis, paid for by tax increases on wealthy Americans and corporations.
In a vaguely worded letter to colleagues on Thursday night, House speaker Nancy Pelosi called it a “day of progress”.
“Discussions continue with the House, Senate and White House to reach a bicameral framework agreement to Build Back Better through a reconciliation bill,” she wrote.
“All of this momentum brings us closer to shaping the reconciliation bill in a manner that will pass the House and Senate,” she said, concluding the letter with the promise: “More to follow.”
Asked whether the House would vote today on the infrastructure bill, speaker Nancy Pelosi told Punchbowl News this morning, “We’re on a path.”
I just caught up with @SpeakerPelosi, who asked me if I spent the night here. (I did not)
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) October 1, 2021
I asked her if she expects a vote today.
“We’re on a path,” she said.
She said she’ll have a “conversation” later today with us. I look forward to hearing more and reporting it!
And a quirky note about congressional procedure: because the House remained in recess overnight, today is still technically the legislative day of September 30.
That feels very fitting for the Washington reporters who have been covering the infrastructure negotiations, which have felt never-ending.
A bitterly divided Democratic party was set to resume talks on Joe Biden’s legislative agenda on Friday with progressives confident they are gaining momentum and centrists apparently on the back foot.
A vote on the $1tn bipartisan infrastructure bill was delayed late on Thursday night despite a promise by the House of Representatives speaker, Nancy Pelosi, to centrists that she would bring it to the floor.
The move represented a victory for progressives who stood firm in warning that they would vote against the bill unless they get a firm commitment that Biden’s $3.5tn social and environmental package will also pass.
Unlike the debate over Barack Obama’s healthcare legislation a decade ago, progressives appear to be more closely aligned with the president and able to flex their political muscles. On Thursday they were united in making the case that centrists are now in the minority.
Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told the MSNBC network: “Four per cent of all the Democrats in the House and Senate are blocking the Build Back Better Act from passing. Ninety-six per cent agree with us.”
The White House is also sounding rather optimistic about Democrats reaching a deal on the reconciliation package and passing the infrastructure bill.
In a statement released late last night, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Joe Biden was “grateful” for House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer’s efforts to advance his agenda.
“A great deal of progress has been made this week, and we are closer to an agreement than ever,” Psaki said.
“But we are not there yet, and so, we will need some additional time to finish the work, starting tomorrow morning first thing.”
While acknowledging that disagreements remain among congressional Democrats, Psaki emphasized that the party is unified in its desire to address the climate crisis and provide financial aid to American families “without adding to the deficit”.
The delay of the infrastructure bill vote was disappointing for House moderates, who had pushed speaker Nancy Pelosi to commit to a deadline for the vote.
But Josh Gottheimer, the Democratic congressman who led the campaign for a deadline on the vote, sounded optimistic last night about the bill’s ultimate chances of passage.
It ain’t over yet! This is just one long legislative day — we literally aren’t adjourning. Negotiations are still ongoing, and we’re continuing to work. As I said earlier: grabbing some Gatorade and Red Bull.
— Rep Josh Gottheimer (@RepJoshG) October 1, 2021
“It ain’t over yet! This is just one long legislative day — we literally aren’t adjourning,” Gottheimer said on Twitter. “Negotiations are still ongoing, and we’re continuing to work. As I said earlier: grabbing some Gatorade and Red Bull.”
That last comment was a reference to yesterday afternoon, when Gottheimer encouraged reporters to get some Gatorade and Red Bull to prepare for the night ahead because the House was not likely to hold the vote for several more hours.
Democrats try again to reach deal on infrastructure bill and reconciliation package
Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.
Well, Democrats did not have their planned House vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill yesterday, after party leaders failed to reach a deal on the reconciliation package.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi stayed at the Capitol until about midnight last night, in the hopes that she could call a late vote on the infrastructure bill.
But after a full day of negotiating, it became clear that Democrats would need more time to reach an agreement on the reconciliation package and thus free up progressives to support the infrastructure bill.
Progressives have said for weeks that they will not vote for the infrastructure bill until the reconciliation package advances as well, and so far, they have remained unified in sticking to that position.
Pelosi has said she now plans to hold the vote on the infrastructure bill today, but many questions remain over the size and scope of the reconciliation package, as moderate senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema insist the proposal must be scaled down.
Today will give Pelosi and Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer another opportunity to close the deal and get the infrastructure bill across the line.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
