President Biden, Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer failed to string the needle between restive corners of their caucuses on a self-imposed (or “self-inflicted,” within the phrases of 1 Home Democrat) deadline to move a core tenet of their home agenda.
Barring some unseen dramatic shift, there seem to be only two real options within the hours forward:
- Maintain the scheduled vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill and watch it fail
- Pull the invoice
The underside line is that Biden and Pelosi, after days of feverish behind-the-scenes efforts, enter the day with no clear path to securing a majority within the scheduled vote on the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure invoice. However the course of is not over, that agenda is not lifeless and there are nonetheless weeks, if not months, forward of negotiations, in line with a number of White Home officers and lawmakers.
Pelosi informed CNN’s Manu Raju the plan was nonetheless to place the infrastructure invoice on the ground. That adopted a gathering with Biden and Schumer within the Oval Workplace.
However 4 days in the past, she stated this on ABC’s “This Week”:
“I am by no means bringing a invoice to the ground that does not have the votes.”
The place issues stand in the mean time: The dynamics have not shifted within the final a number of weeks. In some ways, they’ve solely grown extra entrenched.
Progressive Democrats aren’t simply planning to withhold their votes from the $1.2 trillion infrastructure invoice until they obtain progress on the second, multi-trillion financial and local weather package deal. They’ve been asking for legislative textual content. They need to know precisely what they’re getting within the larger invoice earlier than they signal on to moderates’ infrastructure plan. It is known as leverage, but it surely’s additionally known as bringing Biden’s agenda to the brink.
“We can not negotiate with ourselves,” Rep. Katie Porter, a progressive, informed CNN. “Folks say, ‘Are you prepared to barter with Sen. Manchin?’ On what?”
Solely two senators can present that — Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Neither have completed so, nor do they plan to, in line with individuals who have spoken to each within the final 24 hours.
So issues are frozen, and can seemingly stay so till there may be public motion from the 2 reasonable hold-outs.
