LIVE COVERAGE: Moderate Democrats demand vote on infrastructure
By The Hill staff - 10/01/21 11:05 AM EDT
House Democrats are scrambling Friday to break a weeks-long stalemate on a bipartisan infrastructure package — a debate that's exposed fierce rifts between moderates and progressives that are threatening to tank President Biden's ambitious domestic agenda.
On two occasions this week, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had promised moderates a vote on a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package, only to punt it in the face of entrenched opposition from liberals, who are first demanding a commitment from Senate centrists to back a larger, multitrillion-dollar social benefits package.
In a bid to secure the support from those Senate holdouts, top White House officials were in the Capitol into the late hours Thursday night, huddling with Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) in search of an agreement that can pass both chambers with no Republican backing.
Manchin, earlier in the day, had argued for a $1.5 trillion "family" benefits package, which was quickly panned by liberals in both chambers as insufficient to meet the needs of working families after decades of middle-class wage stagnation. The sides exited those talks without a deal, leaving the liberals still opposed to the infrastructure bill and infuriating the moderates who had been promised a vote on the bipartisan proposal by day's end.
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https://thehill.com/homenews/house/574880-live-coverage-moderate-democrats-demand-vote-on-infrastructure
