House Democrats are ending their summer recess on Monday and returning to Washington with plans to advance a spending package that provides a record amount of funding for social policies.
At stake is a historic $3.5 trillion plan -- the Build Back Better Act -- to boost the economy, strengthen the social safety net and attempt to curb climate change. The ambitious measure would be financed largely with tax increases on the rich and big corporations.
Democrats control the House by just three votes. Their leaders are hoping for quick approval of a budget resolution that would move the bill forward, allowing it to pass this fall with only Democratic backing. Without the resolution, Senate Republicans would be able to use a filibuster to kill the $3.5 trillion bill, the Associated Press reported.
However, progressive and moderate Democrats are at odds on strategy.
Nine moderates are trying to upend plans for enacting the bill, which cuts prescription drug costs, reduces the cost of housing and education, strengthens care for veterans, takes on climate change and helps families afford childcare and care for older Americans. The members are threatening to vote against the budget resolution unless the House first approves the Senate-passed $1 trillion, 10-year Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which would would send billions to states for rebuilding roads, broadband internet, water pipes and public works systems.
"We simply can't afford months of unnecessary delays and risk squandering this once-in-a-century, bipartisan infrastructure package," the members said in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Pelosi and other progressive Democrats, however, have said a vote on the infrastructure package would only take place after approval of the social policy bill.
In a letter to Democratic members of the House, Pelosi said it is essential to keep the vote majority and reach an agreement on a reconciliation bill.
"We must not squander our Congressional Democratic Majorities and jeopardize the once-in-a-generation opportunity to create historic change to meet the needs of working families," Pelosi wrote. "There is a clear recognition that we must pass both the Build Back Better Act and the bipartisan infrastructure bill – and we must do so soon."
As neither side shows any signs of budging, the Democratic leadership is hoping to pass a rule Monday night for debating both the budget measure and the infrastructure bill, along with an unrelated voting rights bill, with final votes scheduled for Tuesday, the New York Times reported.
Late last week, the White House issued a statement saying the American people cannot afford to wait for the generational benefits that these initiatives would deliver.
"The president noted that these policies go to the heart of the values that he ran on," the statement said. It added that Biden "reiterated his enthusiasm" for signing the $1 trillion infrastructure and $3.5 trillion social policy bills "as soon as possible."
