Democrats Scrounge for Votes to Pass $3.5 Trillion Budget Plan

With moderates balking, Speaker Nancy Pelosi was working to secure their support for the budget by committing to an eventual vote on the bipartisan infrastructure plan.

WASHINGTON — Democratic leaders worked feverishly on Monday to cobble together the votes needed to push their $3.5 trillion budget blueprint through the House, facing an internal revolt from moderates who have vowed to block the measure until a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure measure is passed. Approval of the budget plan would be a critical step for President Biden’s agenda, paving the way for the Democratic-led Congress to move quickly to enact an ambitious expansion of the nation’s social safety net over Republican opposition. But its fate was in doubt on Monday as divisions in the party flared, pitting a faction of conservative-leaning Democrats against the party’s progressive majority. Several centrist Democrats have refused to move forward with the budget before the infrastructure package — the product of a bipartisan compromise that passed the Senate this month — clears Congress and becomes law.