WASHINGTON — Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would push ahead with a House vote Friday on a $550 billion public works bill and delay a vote on a larger tax and spending bill despite continuing friction among Democrats that threatens to blow up her plans.
Pelosi said the bipartisan infrastructure bill was too important to put off any longer. She said the House would take a procedural vote to set up consideration of the larger economic package, a central piece of President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda, before the Thanksgiving holiday, Nov. 25.
“This is two giant steps forward today,” Pelosi said.
But her positive words belied the deep conflict between moderate and progressive Democrats in the House. A small group of moderates is withholding support for the tax and spending legislation until a full Congressional Budget Office cost analysis is completed, which could take a week or more. They want the infrastructure bill passed first, which would send it to Biden’s desk.
Biden said at the White House earlier in the day that he would be making calls to lawmakers.
“I’m asking every House member, member of the House of Representatives, to vote yes on both these bills right now,” the president said.
Shortly before Pelosi and Hoyer spoke at a press conference, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, indicated the group won’t go along with the plan to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill without passage of the larger bill, known as Build Back Better. They have held up the public works measure since August while demanding agreement on the social safety net legislation, resisting pleas by Biden to pass the bill alone.
“If our six colleagues still want to wait for a CBO score, we would agree to give them that time — after which point we can vote on both bills together,” she said in a statement.
About 30 progressives met privately late Friday afternoon to discuss their strategy. Jayapal didn’t respond to questions as she left the meeting, but other progressives indicated that their position was unchanged.
Pelosi and other House Democratic leaders refused to say whether they are sure of having enough Democratic votes to pass the infrastructure bill Friday. Rep. James Clyburn, the party’s chief vote counter, would only say, “We’ll see.”
The Democrats' narrow majority means Pelosi can’t afford to lose more than three votes, unless some Republicans vote for the infrastructure bill, which passed the Senate with bipartisan support.
House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy of California said Friday that he anticipated few House Republicans would support for the infrastructure bill because Democrats are linking the vote to the larger social safety net spending bill.
“I’d think it’d be very difficult for a Republican to campaign on that because it’s viewed as one bill,” McCarthy said.
With the Senate having approved the public works bill in August, success in the House floor vote would send it to Biden — giving him a badly needed legislative victory amid his current slump in approval ratings. It provides $550 billion of new funding for roads, bridges, public transit, clean water and other projects.
Pelosi and other members of House Democratic leadership have been grappling with sharp disagreements within the party that has held up action.
Pelosi spent most of Friday trying to convince a half dozen fiscally conservative House Democrats to vote for the bill without a formal estimate of its cost. The members were not taking the White House at its word that the bill would be fully paid for.
The House delay could hold up the larger economic package until later in the year, just as Congress is confronting what is set to be a partisan battle to fund the government by Dec. 3 and raise the federal debt ceiling.
The Senate is likely to change the House-passed bill as Democrats in that chamber deal with their own moderates-progressives divide. That would send the legislation back to the House for another vote.
Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota, a moderate Democrat, said he has “seen enough” to have confidence the bill ultimately will be fully paid for. He said any deficit concerns can be tweaked in the Senate and when the bill comes back from the House.
“Like many of us here I am growing restless,” Phillips said. “Last week it was because of my progressive colleagues and frankly now I’m concerned about some of my colleagues on the other side of spectrum.”
Rep. Raul Grijalva, a progressive from Arizona, called the stance of the moderate holdouts “kind of bush league.”
New Jersey Democrat Bill Pascrell, said the situation was “bizarre.”
“Everything is going wonderful as you can see,” he said.
