Intraparty squabble casts shadow over Democrats’ fiscal agenda – By Lindsey McPherson (Roll Call) / Sept 7 2021
Progressives want infrastructure, reconciliation bills linked so moderates can’t sink or water down the latter
House Democrats secured a temporary truce last month in their internal dispute over economic priorities, but the solution to their standoff all but guarantees another clash by the end of September.
The disagreement between the party’s moderate and progressive wings is ostensibly over the sequencing of two big bills that make up the bulk of President Joe Biden’s economic agenda. A Senate-passed bipartisan infrastructure bill would provide $550 billion in new spending on roads, bridges, transit, broadband and water projects, and a mostly unwritten partisan budget reconciliation package could add another $3.5 trillion on “human” infrastructure, including subsidies for child care, education, paid leave, health care, clean energy programs and more.
The crux of the dispute, however, is about which faction would have the most leverage over the reconciliation package, which House committees are putting together in markups that began last week. The filibuster-proof reconciliation process allows Democrats to pass their economic priorities without Republican support, but they must be unified since they can’t lose a single vote in the Senate or more than three in the House.
Progressives want the infrastructure and reconciliation bills linked to ensure moderates don’t sink or water down the latter. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., embraced the strategy, repeatedly promising the House would not take up the infrastructure bill until the Senate passed the reconciliation package. But moderates balked, saying Democrats should claim the win from the infrastructure bill and then have a debate about the size and scope of the reconciliation package.
CONTINUE > https://www.rollcall.com/2021/09/07/intraparty-squabble-casts-shadow-over-democrats-fiscal-agenda/
