Ocasio-Cortez says it’s possible to shorten years on funding programs to compromise on reconciliation bill

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said Sunday it’s possible that progressives could compromise on fully funding certain programs for fewer years in an effort to lower the reconciliation bill’s price tag.

“We do have to compromise with the fact that we have Sens. Manchin and Sinema who refused to support certain programs for working families. And so the compromises and options that we have before us is the short enough funding programs — do you reduce the level of funding? Do you cut programs out together?” Ocasio-Cortez said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

“I think that one of the ideas that’s out there is fully fund what we can fully fund, but maybe instead of doing it for 10 years, you fully fund it for five years.”

WATCH: @RepAOC tells @margbrennan one way to met in the middle is to “fully fund what we can fully fund” and suggests scaling back the time table on how long some programs are funded for. pic.twitter.com/1mb8iFSJDt

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) October 3, 2021

Ocasio-Cortez’s comments come as progressives and moderates met at a deadlock last week over efforts to put a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill out for a vote in the House. Progressives threatened to tank the legislation unless the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill with Democratic priorities was passed, which drew the ire of some moderates who were against the idea of coupling with both bills.

In the Senate, moderate Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) balked at the price tag of the reconciliation package. Manchin said last week he could agree to something closer to $1.5 trillion instead, a drastic reduction from the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package that Democrats want.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also acknowledged that progressives would have to compromise on the price tag, saying there would have to be “give and take.”

“What the president has said is that there’s going to have to be some give and take, and I think that that’s right. I think if anything, Jonathan, when we especially talk about the crisis of climate change and the need to transform our energy system away from fossil fuel, the $6 trillion that I originally proposed was probably too little,” Sanders told ABC’s “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl on Sunday. “Three and a half trillion should be a minimum, but I accept that there’s gonna have to be give and take.”