WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi faced a fresh hurdle Friday to passing President Joe Biden’s multitrillion-dollar domestic policy aspirations, as nine moderate Democrats threatened to derail a budget blueprint crucial to opening the door to much of that spending.
In a letter to Pelosi, D-Calif., the nine said they “will not consider voting” for a budget resolution mapping Democrats’ ambitious fiscal plans until the House approves a separate, Senate-passed package of road, broadband and other infrastructure projects and sends it to Biden.
“We simply can’t afford months of unnecessary delays and risk squandering this once-in-a-century, bipartisan infrastructure package,” the centrists wrote.
That’s the opposite of Pelosi’s current strategy as party leaders plot how to steer Biden’s agenda through a Congress the divided party runs by paper-thin margins. She’s repeatedly said her chamber won’t vote on the bipartisan, $1 trillion infrastructure measure that moderates covet until the Senate sends the House a companion, $3.5 trillion bundle of social safety net and environmental initiatives favored by progressives.
Progressives have applied their own pressure, saying many would vote against the infrastructure measure until the Senate approves the $3.5 trillion social and environment bill. That larger measure is unlikely to be ready until autumn.
Democrats have too much at stake to let internal turmoil sink their domestic ambitions, but it was initially unclear how leaders would untie the knot. With Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., facing a similar moderates-vs.-progressives balancing act in his chamber, Biden may eventually need to play a more forceful role and prod rank-and-file lawmakers into line.
Seeming to take middle ground, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday that officials believe House Democrats will approve “both key elements of the President’s economic agenda,” as the Senate has.
“Both are essential, and we are working closely with Speaker Pelosi and the leadership to get both to the President’s desk,” Psaki said in a written statement.
Biden consulted with his legislative affairs team about his economic plan’s pathway in the House, the White House said.
Together, the infrastructure and social and environment bills make up the heart of Biden’s governing goals, and their enactment would likely stand as one of his legacy achievements as president. But neither wing of his party in Congress fully trusts the other to back both packages, so leaders want to sequence votes in a way that gives neither faction an edge.
In a measured statement, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said anyone opposing the $3.5 trillion measure “is voting against the President’s and the Democrats’ agenda.” Jayapal chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which has nearly 100 House members.
Democrats control the House by just three votes, giving virtually all 220 of the party’s lawmakers tremendous leverage. They run the 50-50 Senate only with Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote.
The House returns to Washington from its summer recess on Aug. 23 to vote on the budget resolution and perhaps other legislation, giving Biden, Pelosi and other leaders time to decide their next move.
Pelosi, first elected to Congress in 1987 and her party’s House leader since 2003, is a seasoned crisis manager and vote counter who Friday was showing no signs of backing down.
Asked about Pelosi’s next move, a senior House Democratic aide said the party doesn’t have enough votes to pass the infrastructure bill this month.
The aide contrasted the nine moderates with the dozens of progressive Democrats who would vote against that measure unless it comes after the House gets the Senate’s $3.5 trillion social and environmental bill.
