Pelosi says House will move forward on infrastructure, Build Back Better legislation

Announcement caps hours of negotiations among Democrats

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday said the House will vote to send the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill supported by President Joe Biden to his desk and approve a rule for debate on his signature Build Back Better Act.

“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,” Ms Pelosi wrote in a Friday afternoon letter to House Democrats.

“The Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework rule and debate have already happened. Now, we will bring to the Floor the BIF and a rule for consideration of the Build Back Better Act”.

Ms Pelosi’s announcement capped hours of negotiations between and among House leadership, moderate Democrats and members of the House Progressive Caucus, the latter of whom had pushed for the lower chamber to vote on final passage of both bills at the same time.

While the House was first scheduled to take up the measures for debate when members convened at 8am on Friday, progress slowed to a halt shortly after that when House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Biggs moved to adjourn the chamber for the day.

Although members began to vote on the motion at 8.17am, Ms Pelosi held the vote open until approximately 3.20pm in order to allow members of her leadership team to confer on what exactly would be debated and voted on afterwards.

House Democrats have been poised to vote for the infrastructure bill on several prior occasions, but have held back from doing so because members of the House Progressive Caucus have threatened to vote to scuttle the bipartisan bill if brought to the floor as a standalone measure without Mr Biden’s signature legislation.

But Democratic leaders were not going to let another deadline for a vote come and go.

Asked whether the House would take action on either bill on Friday roughly five hours into the delay, House Democratic Whip James Clyburn told reporters outside Ms Pelosi’s office that there would be “forward movement” on both bills.

Because a number of moderate House Democrats have refused to vote for the Build Back Better Act until the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office provides a final “score” of the legislation’s budgetary impact, passing the rule for debate on the bill will allow it to be brought to the House floor without delay once that process is complete.

Asked whether he had the votes to pass both the infrastructure bill and the Build Back Better rule for debate, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland expressed confidence that enough of his Democratic colleagues would support both measures for both to pass.

“I hope everybody will vote for it, and I think if everybody votes today, we will move forward and I think we will pass both bills,” Mr Hoyer said.

New York Representative Mondaire Jones, a freshman member of the Progressive Caucus, told The Independent: “I think we should vote on both the Build Back Better Act and the bipartisan infrastructure bill,” but he would not say whether he would support leadership’s plans to bring the bipartisan legislation up for a vote before the Build Back Better Act.

New Jersey’s Bonnie Watson Coleman, another Progressive Caucus member said it would be “her preference” to vote on the Build Back Better Act first, but said she would be content with voting for the bipartisan bill and the rule for the Build Back Better Act as leadership has proposed.

“If we’re going to vote for the rule and the BIF, as long as we vote for the BBB, I’m good,” she said.