Divided, House Democrats delay vote on trillion dollar infrastructure Bill
The Hindu
Biden and his team had been meeting with lawmakers and making a series of calls in the run up to Thursday.
Washington DC Despite frenetically working late into Thursday night, Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives failed to vote on a $ 1 trillion infrastructure bill as moderate and progressive factions could not agree on a second ‘once in a generation’ social spending and climate action bill, for which U.S. President had requested $3.5 trillion. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said the infrastructure vote will take place on Friday.
“There will be a vote today,” Ms Pelosi said just past midnight (i.e., early Friday), as per the New York Times.
Failure to pass the social spending package is likely to damage Democrats’ prospects in the 2022 midterms and also in the general election ins 2024. Both the bills define Mr Biden’s domestic agenda, with the White House having proposed the American Jobs Plan (infrastructure) and the American Families Plan (social spending) earlier this year, as a way to ‘Build Back Better’.
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