Daily US Times: Moderate Democrats in the House of Representatives say they would sink a crucial fiscal blueprint outlining 3.5 trillion US dollars in social and environmental spending unless a separate infrastructure bill is approved first, a new complication for the division of Democratic Party and Republican Party drive to enact President Biden’s domestic agenda.
The centrists’ threat directly defies Nancy Pelosi’s announced plans, and the House Speaker is showing no signs of backing down.
It also completes a two-sided squeeze on Pelosi, who has received similar pressure from her party’s progressives.
Democrats can only pass legislation in the House, which is narrowly divided, if they lose no more than three votes. Solid Republican opposition seems certain.
Nine centrists Democrats wrote in a letter to Speaker Pelosi obtained Friday by The Associated Press reads: “We will not consider voting for a budget resolution until the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passes the House and is signed into law.”
Pelosi has repeatedly said the House will not vote on the $1 trillion package of water, rail, rails, roads and other infrastructure projects until the Senate sends the House the companion $3.5 trillion bill.
Pelosi has set that sequence because the progressives of the Democratic Party have worried that if the infrastructure bill is approved first, moderates unhappy with the separate $3.5 trillion measure’s cost would feel free to vote against it, causing its defeat.
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