1:18
- ABC News
- October 1, 2021
Infrastructure vote postponed
White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced the delay Thursday night.
1:18
\"We are proceeding in a very positive direction,\" Pelosi said brightly, even though the bill has not been scheduled for the House floor and her top lieutenants have said publicly that it lacks the votes to pass.
Meanwhile, the White House wasn't ruling out Biden heading to Capitol Hill Thursday to make a last-minute push to House Democrats just before the big vote.
While lawmakers were expected to agree separately on a government funding resolution with hours to spare Thursday, the outcome of the House vote on the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill -- central to Biden's agenda -- was still in serious doubt.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/nancy-pelosi-01-gty-iwb-210930_1633014584861_hpMain_4x3t_384.jpg\")
Pelosi spent the afternoon meeting with various factions of her caucus. Even as progressives left the meeting vowing to withhold support for the infrastructure bill absent progress on Democrats' larger agenda, two groups of moderates left meetings with Pelosi predicting a vote later Thursday evening.
Progressive Democrats have all but guaranteed that they will defeat the bipartisan bill on the floor -- to the embarrassment of Pelosi who vowed to pass the bill this week -- absent any breakthroughs on the larger policy spending package. Those breakthroughs seem unlikely as negotiations between the White House and Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, who oppose the package's $3.5 trillion price tag, have fallen flat.
Roughly half of the nearly 100-member progressive caucus -- at least 50 members, urged on by Sen. Bernie Sanders -- have vowed to vote no on the bipartisan bill, effectively holding it hostage until a larger infrastructure bill passes via the reconciliation process.
I strongly urge my House colleagues to vote against the bipartisan infrastructure bill until Congress passes a strong reconciliation bill.
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) September 28, 2021
While progressives bashed Manchin and Sinema over their objections to the larger package, Pelosi praised Manchin at her news conference, calling the West Virginia Democrat \"a good member of Congress\" and said negotiations are focused on \"substance\" rather than \"rhetoric\" or \"dollars.\"
At midday, Manchin told reporters his topline number for the larger bill -- that he's conveyed to Biden -- is $1.5 trillion, something bound to harden progressive opposition and put the House vote in even more jeopardy.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/manchin-congress-budget-01-ap-iwb-210930_1633022173273_hpMain_4x3t_384.jpg\")
Attempting to also sway progressives, Pelosi said Thursday members should \"remove all doubt\" that there will not be a reconciliation bill following a bipartisan vote on Thursday.
\"We will have a reconciliation bill. That is for sure. today the question is about. We are proceeding in a very positive way to bring up the bill, to bring up the \"BIF\" (the bipartisan infrastructure framework), and to do so in a way that can win. And so far so good for today, it's going in a positive direction,\" she said.
Pelosi, who met with her leadership team ahead of news conference, hinted that getting a larger human infrastructure and climate policy bill is vital to her and her legacy.
\"I just told members of my leadership that the reconciliation bill was a culmination of my service in Congress 'cause it was about the children,\" she said.
Speaker Pelosi: \"The reconciliation bill was a cumulation of my service in Congress because it was about the children…Remove all doubt in anyone's mind that we will not have a reconciliation bill. We will have a reconciliation bill. That is for sure.\" https://t.co/AwEr9kMMwY pic.twitter.com/TUCIOD2zh1
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) September 30, 2021
But progressives appear to be holding firm in opposition.
Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., reiterated on Thursday that progressives are in the \"same place\" and will not vote to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill unless there is agreement with the moderate Democratic senators on a larger social spending package.
\"We will not be able to vote for the infrastructure bill until the reconciliation bill has passed,\" Jayapal told reporters after a meeting with Pelosi.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/pramila-jayapal-gty-jt-210930_1633023617794_hpMain_4x3t_384.jpg\")
\"It's not about trusting the speaker, it's not about trusting the president, it's really about the vote as an ironclad assurance from the Senate,\" she added, referring to Manchin and Sinema.
At her midafternoon White House briefing, press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters, \"We're working towards winning a vote tonight. We have several hours left in the day.\"
She added, \"We know that compromise is inevitable. We've also seen that play out over the last couple of days. And right now, we're clearly in the thick of it.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/jen-psaki-01-gty-iwb-210930_1633028072274_hpMain_4x3t_384.jpg\")
Pelosi told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos on \"This Week\" that she's \"never bringing a bill to the floor that doesn't have the votes\" -- raising questions of whether she'll stop the vote in the 11th hour.
Asked on Sunday by Stephanopoulos if she was confident that progressive members would vote yes, Pelosi answered, \"Well, let me just say we're going to pass the bill this week.\"
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/pelosi-game-bump-gty-ps-210930_1633012798572_hpEmbed_3x2_384.jpg\")
Biden stepped out of the White House Wednesday night, rubbing elbows at the congressional game with his former colleagues, appearing to be in good spirits, amid the tense legislative negotiations, while Pelosi appeared to do some last-minute lobbying on her cell phone, in a show of the stakes of the infrastructure bill passing this week -- as opposed to later.
The $3.5 trillion bill progressives insist the House passes before or at the same time as the $1.2 trillion package includes significant new investments in health care, child care, higher education, workforce training, and paid family and medical leave which would include 12 weeks paid family and medical leave for most working Americans.
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