Democrats are set to try, again, this week to advance President Biden’s two-part economic package after being forced to punt amid deep intraparty divisions.
Congressional Democrats and the White House spent the weekend negotiating after Biden’s visit to the Hill to pitch a framework for a $1.75 trillion bill failed to lock in a Thursday vote on the Senate-passed infrastructure bill and instead sparked a frenzy to finalize the social spending legislation.
House Democratic leadership initially hoped to be able to hold votes on both bills on Tuesday — the same day as the closely watched Virginia governor’s race — with the House Rules Committee expected to meet on Monday.
“We’re going to pass those two bills you’ve been hearing about. We’re going to pass them. The vote’s been called for Tuesday. We’re gonna take this vote, and we’re going to pass them,” House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said at an event in Virginia over the weekend.
But instead a House leadership aide said on Sunday that the plan had been delayed as Democrats continued to negotiate and draft the roughly $1.75 trillion social spending plan.
Democrats say they are closing in on an agreement to include prescription drug negotiations in the final bill after it was left out of the framework, after a source told The Hill that an agreement reached between Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and the White House didn’t yet have enough votes.
A leadership aide said on Sunday that they had made “extensive progress” on the Medicare prescription drug language.
“That bill is still being worked on literally today. It will be worked on tomorrow. I believe we’re making some progress in making it even stronger than it is,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
But that means the House Rules Committee won’t meet on Monday, though both the aide and Biden said on Sunday that they expect votes in the House this week on the two-part package. The aide noted that the Rules Committee will meet “as early as possible this week,” which would lay the groundwork for bringing the bills to the floor.
The push to move forward this week comes after House Democratic leadership walked back plans to vote on the Senate-passed infrastructure bill on Thursday after a visit to the Capitol by Biden failed to secure a deal before he left for a trip to Italy and Scotland.
Pelosi initially indicated that she would bring the Senate bill to the floor on Thursday, but progressives warned that they wouldn’t support the bill without a commitment from Senate moderates on the details of the separate social spending legislation.
“I think there has got to be a framework agreed upon in the Senate that all of us know is going to be implemented before the members of the House vote,” Sanders told CNN.
Even as progressives prevented quick passage of the Senate’s infrastructure bill, they indicated that they expected both bills would be able to pass the House as soon as this week.
“Well, we are working to add things in. I mean, the negotiation is taking place. I’m going to be a ‘yes.’ I think we can have the vote by Tuesday,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.”
If the House passes the reconciliation legislation this week, they might have to pass it again as soon as later this month.
The Senate is still waiting to get its latest immigration reform plan approved by the parliamentarian, and the updated text released by the House Rules Committee last week includes placeholder language that has already been rejected by the parliamentarian.
And because Democrats are using reconciliation, an arcane budget process, to pass the spending bill without needing GOP votes in the Senate, they’ll have to go through a marathon voting process known as vote-a-rama where any senator who wants to try to change the bill will be able to.
Any changes that are made by the Senate will need to be approved by the House before the bill can be sent to Biden.
Nominations
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has teed up several nominations for votes on the Senate floor as Democrats continue negotiations on their spending package.
The Senate will vote on Monday night on the nominations of Beth Robinson to be a judge for the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals and Toby Heytons to be a judge on the 4th Circuit.
Schumer has also set up votes this week on Jonathan Davidson’s nomination to be a Treasury deputy under secretary, Benjamin Harris to be an assistant secretary at Treasury, Isobel Coleman to be deputy administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, Jeffrey Prieto to be assistant administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and Rajesh Nayak to be an assistant secretary of Labor.