Progressive and moderate Democratic lawmakers seem near a truce likely to result in House passage of a long-stalled $1 trillion infrastructure bill, clearing the way for a victory President Joe Biden and his party are anxious to claim.
Under the agreement, brokered by Biden and top Democrats, progressives would end their roadblock against the package of road, water and other projects. In exchange, moderates who’ve balked at a separate 10-year, $1.85 trillion measure boosting social and environment programs would commit to backing it later this month if official estimates of its cost are in line with expectations.
House passage of the infrastructure measure would whisk it to the desk of a president whose approval ratings have dropped and whose party got a cold shoulder from voters in this week’s off-year elections. Democrats have struggled for months to take advantage of their control of the White House and Congress by advancing their top priorities. That’s been hard, in part because of Democrats’ slender majorities, with bitter internal divisions forcing House leaders to miss several self-imposed deadlines for votes.“Welcome to my world,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters, adding, “We are not a lockstep party.
Progressives have long demanded that the two massive bills be voted on together to pressure moderates to support the larger, more expansive social measure.
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