Democrats concede bipartisan infrastructure plan vote won’t happen Monday

CNN

By Kevin Liptak and Devan Cole, CNN

The future of President Joe Biden’s sweeping economic agenda remained uncertain Sunday as Democrats acknowledged a planned vote on one pillar of the plan — a bipartisan public works bill — would not happen by Monday.

Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the leader of House progressives, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” there simply aren’t enough votes for the party to pass the proposal right now.

A key moderate, Rep. Josh Gottheimer, conceded the vote would likely occur “early next week.”

And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi acknowledged she wouldn’t bring the measure for a vote knowing it would fail.

“We’ll bring the bill forward tomorrow for consideration, but, you know, I’m never bringing a bill to the floor that doesn’t have the votes,” Pelosi said on ABC’s “This Week,” a concession the $1 trillion infrastructure plan may not be acted upon in the House by the September 27 deadline she committed to last month.

It was signal that the hunt continues for an elusive compromise between disparate wings of the Democratic Party over Biden’s sweeping economic plan. Pelosi, along with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and senior White House officials, have spent the weekend working to broker an agreement on a far-reaching social and environmental package that contains virtually the entirety of Biden’s domestic agenda.

So far they have been unable to strike a deal between progressive and moderate Democrats on a topline figure for the bill or a framework of programs contained in the plan.

House progressives have said they will not vote for the separate infrastructure package unless it is accompanied by the much larger social bill, dubbed by the administration as the “Build Back Better” plan.

But some moderates have balked at the current $3.5 trillion size of that plan, leaving to feverish negotiations in search of a middle ground. With the thinnest of margins in both chambers, Democrats can afford to lose almost no party votes.

“The speaker is an incredibly good vote counter, and she knows exactly where her caucus stands and we’ve been really clear on that,” Jayapal told CNN’s Jake Tapper when asked about the planned vote on Monday. “The votes aren’t there. I don’t think she’s going to bring it up.”

Last month, Pelosi committed to passing the infrastructure package by September 27, hoping to placate moderates who were wavering in support for the larger budget blueprint.

Jayapal, the chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, has said for days that her members will not vote for the $1 trillion bill without passing the $3.5 trillion package aimed at enacting Biden’s economic agenda. But her comments Sunday are the clearest sign yet that progressive House members intend to carry through on their threat hours before the planned vote.

Gottheimer, who co-chairs the Problem Solvers Caucus, told Tapper that the House would bring the infrastructure bill to the floor for consideration by Monday’s deadline, but that a vote won’t take place until Tuesday at the earliest.

“The way these things work if you start debating it and it rolls over to Tuesday, I don’t think — I think we’re all reasonable people,” Gottheimer said.

Pelosi also suggested the Monday deadline was slipping.

“You cannot choose the date. You have to go when you have the votes at a reasonable time, and we will,” she said, holding out that the vote “may” happen Monday.

“Let me just say we’re going to pass the bill this week,” she said.

None of the Democrats offered much clarity on the broader negotiations over the larger social safety net plan, which would make major new investments in child care, health care, education and climate change. On Friday, Biden said the talks were at a “stalemate.”

Pelosi said it was “self-evident” the final bill would be smaller than $3.5 trillion.

“Obviously with negotiations there will have to be some changes in that, and the sooner the better,” she said. “We will do that. The American people need that to happen.”

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments Sunday.

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