Political whiplash ensued Friday afternoon in Washingon as Democrats continued to disagree on how to advance President Joe Biden’s agenda.
The president has long voiced his desire for Congress to simultaneously pass two bills: A $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure framework already approved by the Senate, as well as a trimmed-down $1.85 trillion social and environment measure.
Late in the day, House leaders announced a change of plans: They would hold a Friday vote on the infrastructure package, with hopes to hold a subsequent vote on the larger social spending framework before Thanksgiving.
“I am absolutely convinced, beyond a doubt, that before Thanksgiving, the week of the 15th, we will pass the Build Back Better legislation,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said late Friday afternoon.
Earlier in the day, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other leaders met privately with a handful of centrists who said they want an official cost estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office before voting on a 10-year, $1.85 trillion social and environment bill. Democrats can lose no more than three votes in the narrowly divided House to pass the legislation.
“We had hoped to be able to bring both bills to the floor today,” Pelosi said. “Some members want more clarification, validation of numbers that have been put forth, its topline that it is fully paid for, and we honor that request. So today, we hope to pass the BIF and also the rule on BBB.”
Leaders have said complete CBO figures won’t be available for days or more. “We’re working on it,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said of the talks.
The White House also offered assurances that both bills will be “fully paid for” under Biden’s proposed plans, primarily by increasing taxes on the wealthiest Americans.
Much of the package’s cost would be covered with higher taxes on wealthier Americans, those earning more than $400,000 a year, and a 5% surtax would be added on those making over $10 million annually. Large corporations would face a new 15% minimum tax in an effort to stop big businesses from claiming so many deductions that they end up paying zero in taxes.
“As you know, the Build Back Better framework that the president put forth, and also bipartisan infrastructure framework, is paid for,” White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Friday afternoon. “This is something that the President was very clear that he wanted to make sure happened.”
Jean-Pierre added that conversations between the White House and Capitol Hill are “continuing to happen,” saying the president is “working very, very closely with members and their staff to make sure that we deliver for the American public” and hopes to sign both bills soon. She would not say if the president planned to change his weekend plans to stay in Washington in anticipation of a vote, as the president and first lady are set to be in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
After months of negotiations, House passage of the big bill would be a crucial step, sending to the Senate Biden’s ambitious effort to expand health care, child care and other social services for countless Americans and deliver the nation’s biggest investment yet to fight climate change.
Alongside the slimmer roads-bridges-and-broadband package, it adds up to Biden’s answer to his campaign promise to rebuild the country from the COVID-19 pandemic and confront a changing economy.
But they’re not there yet.
Majority Leader Hoyer, D-Md., wrote in an email announcing the votes that “Republican procedural votes are expected throughout” Friday, and GOP lawmakers quickly lived up to that expectation: Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs, who chairs the far-right Freedom Caucus and a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump, introduced a motion to adjourn the House shortly after 8:00 a.m.
The motion, as expected, had more than enough votes to fail, but was held open as Democrats hammer out the final details of the infrastructure vote, leading to the longest House vote in history.
Democratic leaders had hoped to see the House approve both measures on Friday, producing twin triumphs for a president and party eager to rebound from this week’s deflating off-year elections and show they can govern.
But those plans were dashed when, after hours of talks, a half-dozen moderates insisted they would vote against the sprawling social and climate bill unless the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office first provided its cost estimate for the measure.
With Friday’s delay and lawmakers’ plans to leave town for a week’s break, that could mean the budget estimates would be ready by the time a vote is held.
On Thursday, the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) released a report saying that the tax-increase provisions in the bill would raise $1.5 trillion over 10 years — but it does not include the bill’s other pay-fors, including drug pricing provisions or IRS enforcement. Specifically, corporate and international tax reform will bring in roughly $814 billion in revenue, while tax increases on wealthy Americans will bring in $640 billion.
An estimate provided by the White House suggests IRS enforcement could bring in $400 billion, with prescription drug reform providing $145 billion — putting the total somewhere in the neighborhood of over $2 trillion in revenue.
Pelosi said Thursday that the bill was “solidly paid for” following the release of the JCT report.
“In order to make progress on the president’s vision, it is important that we advance the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework and the Build Back Better Act today,” Pelosi wrote in a letter to colleagues Friday, adding: “The agenda that we are advancing is transformative and historic, hence challenging.”
The infrastructure bill passed the Senate in a widely bipartisan fashion in August with the support of 19 Republicans, including GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. But the bill stalled in the House, with progressives hoping that both bills would be considered simultaneously.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., who leads the Congressional Progressive Caucus, revived that timing link Friday, saying the White House and Congress’ nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation had provided all the fiscal information lawmakers needed for the broad bill.
“If our six colleagues still want to wait for a CBO score, we would agree to give them that time — after which point we can vote on both bills together,” she wrote. That strongly suggested that at least some progressives would vote Friday against the infrastructure bill.
Passing the infrastructure bill would send the measure to the president’s desk, while passing the BBB bill would send it to the Senate, where it would face certain changes thanks to the Senate’s budget reconciliation process – and almost assuredly more drama between Democrats.
Biden, meanwhile, urged lawmakers to take action immediately.
“I’m asking every House member, member of the House of Representatives, to vote yes on both these bills, right now,” Biden said Friday in remarks touting Friday’s promising October jobs report. “Send the infrastructure bill to my desk. Send the Build Back Better bill to the Senate.”
“Let’s show the world America’s democracy can deliver,” Biden added.
“We want to make sure that people continue to feel it in their lives, in their bank accounts and their hopes and expectations. For a tomorrow that’s better than today,” Biden said. “Right now, we stand on the cusp of historic economic progress.”
