Nancy Pelosi speeds ahead with plans to vote on Biden’s infrastructure bill even as progressives threaten to revolt again

Nancy Pelosi is speeding toward a vote on the infrastructure bill amid progressive opposition.
Biden unveiled a $1.75 trillion social-spending framework on Thursday, cutting many proposals.
Progressives have remained adamant they will not vote for infrastructure until they approve of the social-spending reconciliation bill.

Shortly after President Joe Biden unveiled his $1.75 trillion, scaled-down social-spending framework early on Thursday, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi jumpstarted efforts to set up a vote on the $550 billion infrastructure bill later the same day.

But signs of trouble are mounting as progressive lawmakers say they want the full social spending bill drafted before casting a vote on the infrastructure bill focused on upgrading roads, bridges, pipes, and Internet connections.

“We intend to vote for both bills when the Build Back Better text is ready,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told reporters.

Pelosi said during a press conference Thursday afternoon that the nearly 2,000 pages of text for the bill is up and ready for review, but the next step in the process will be holding a hearing for lawmakers to review and negotiate the text. She declined to say at that time if the infrastructure vote would indeed be held on Thursday.

In June, Biden reached a deal with the Senate on a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, but since then, progressive lawmakers in the House have remained adamant they will not vote for an infrastructure bill unless a social-spending bill is passed at the same time. The latter will be passed through a process called reconciliation, which allows the Democratic House to bypass Republicans and approve a bill with a simple majority vote.

After releasing his plan, the president visited Capitol Hill on Thursday to meet privately with House Democrats. He urged them to move ahead with both plans before departing for a climate summit at Glasgow.

“We badly need a vote on both of these measures,” Biden said, per a person familiar with his remarks. “I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that the House and Senate majorities and my presidency will be determined by what happens in the next week.”

Given that progressives are not budging on passing the reconciliation bill alongside infrastructure, it’s unlikely a vote will happen on Thursday since the text they were asking for still needs to be reviewed. But Jayapal noted that there has been “tremendous momentum” on the negotiations.

“There has been more negotiation that has happened in the last three weeks than has happened in the last many months,” Jayapal told MSNBC.

Pelosi also noted there are things in Biden’s framework she would like to see changed, like an inclusion of a paid leave program. Twelve weeks of paid family and medical leave did not make the cut, along with other priorities like free community college and an extended five-year child tax credit.

As Insider reported, the only investment that did not get cut was $555 billion for the climate – the largest investment in the bill.

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