Congressional politics Reality bites…..
Democrats simply do NOT have the votes from both parties to do it in the Senate….
Democratic Senators Manchin and Sinema ARE controlling the action (And US Senate rules) ….
Not Pelosi, Schumer or even Biden…..
The speaker had declared earlier this summer that the House would only pass Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill if both chambers had also agreed to the party’s broader social spending plan. The California Democrat privately told members that the thinking began to change 10 days ago when she learned that Democrats would need to scale back the initial $3.5 trillion price tag for that spending bill — a massive legislative task.
“It all changed, so our approach had to change,” Pelosi told her caucus Monday, according to Democrats present.
“We had to accommodate the changes that were being necessitated.” And we cannot be ready to say, she added, “Until the Senate passed the bill, we can’t do [infrastructure].”
The California Democrat said Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer continue to push Senate moderates to agree to a topline spending target, saying spending bill action in her chamber is effectively frozen until that happens.
“We are not going to pass a bill that won’t pass the Senate. And that’s why we have to come up with a number,” Pelosi told Democrats. “But we’re not there yet.”
But even as Pelosi attempted to rally her caucus around the new plan, the senator who would be key to any deal showed no movement…..
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Senior Democrats on both sides of the Capitol are hoping to secure that official “framework” for that policy bill that would have buy-in from Senate moderates — ideally enough of a commitment to convince liberals in the House to back down on their threat and support the infrastructure bill.