Pelosi Plans Infrastructure Vote as Safety Net Bill Remains Mired in Rifts
The New York Times
The move amounts to a gamble that liberals who have balked at allowing the infrastructure bill to move on its own will support it in a vote on Thursday.
WASHINGTON — Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California signaled to Democrats on Monday that she would push ahead with a vote this week on a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, pushing to salvage President Biden’s agenda in Congress even as the party remained divided over a broader social safety net measure.
Progressive lawmakers have long warned that they will not vote for the infrastructure legislation, which the Senate passed last month, until a far more expansive $3.5 trillion domestic policy and tax package also clears the chamber.
But in private remarks to her caucus on Monday evening, Ms. Pelosi effectively decoupled the two bills, saying that Democrats needed more time to resolve their differences over the multitrillion-dollar social policy plan. The move amounted to a gamble that liberals who had balked at allowing the infrastructure bill to move on its own would support it in a planned vote on Thursday.
