Democrats face full legislative plate and rising tensions
By Mike Lillis and Scott Wong - 09/20/21 06:29 PM EDT
House Democratic leaders racing to advance President Biden’s sweeping domestic agenda are confronting a caucus that’s feuding caustically over the size, scope and strategic timing of the two-track legislation.
Liberals are insisting that the two key components of Biden’s agenda — a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that has Republican support and a Democratic-only $3.5 trillion social spending package — be passed in tandem to ensure the success of both. Moderates are demanding that the two measures be divorced so the lawmakers can stake better claims to their own bipartisan credentials.
Caught in the middle is Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who has promised Democratic moderates that she'll bring a vote on the Senate-passed infrastructure bill on Sept. 27 — a plan being panned by caucus liberals, who are demanding simultaneous action on the larger package, and growing increasingly angry with their centrist colleagues.
“You have a very small, destructive group of members who want to hold the entire country's agenda hostage for an arbitrary date,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said Monday. “And it's not representative of the agenda of the caucus; it's not representative of the agenda of the president. And we need to stay focused on the original process that allowed us to move forward in the first place.”
more
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/573095-democrats-face-full-legislative-plate-and-rising-tensions
