House Democrats are hoping to hold votes on the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill and a larger social benefits package for families next week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday.
“That’s the plan,” Pelosi told reporters, according to The Hill.
The remarks preceded a letter distributed to Democrats on Friday, laying out the steps “as we move forward to pass two jobs bills next week,” according to the report.
“As negotiations continue, there may be changes,” Pelosi’s letter noted.
Democrats have struggled to gain traction in their own party on their goal to have the bills passed together as moderates seek a vote on the infrastructure bill Monday, which has already passed the Senate.
Progressives are holding out on support for infrastructure unless the larger social programs package, worked by the Senate Budget Committee under chair Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is passed as well.
House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth, D-Ky., plans to hold a Saturday meeting to compile what will be a 2,500-page proposal for President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan before it goes to the Rules Committee led by Chairman Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass.
“We’ll get it reported out [Saturday],” Yarmuth told The Hill, declining to guarantee it will be on the House floor next week. “It’s gonna be up when we’re ready.”
The $3.5 trillion price tag of the budget reconciliation package faces opposition from moderate Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz.
“Reconciliation’s a possibility for next week,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told The Hill while leaving Pelosi’s office Friday.
Sinema, a key architect of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, noted the agreement with Republicans came with the condition it could stand alone from the budget reconciliation spending, according to reports.
Manchin’s opposition against $3.5 trillion for the budget reconciliation bill is the lack of “urgency” for more spending that will impact inflation.
“We’re bringing the bill up, we will have a vote when we have the votes,” Pelosi told The Hill.
