What’s next for Democrats’ $1.85 trillion Build Back Better bill after infrastructure passedThe House has sent a $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to President Joe Biden’s desk. But congressional Democrats still have more work to do in the coming weeks and months to deliver the other half of Biden’s first-year legislative agenda, the nearly $2 trillion Build Back Better Act that covers a number of social spending provisions.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi now aims to pass that bill next week, when some Congressional Budget Office assessments of the bill could be released. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said he wants to pass the bill in the Senate by Thanksgiving.
But that timeline could change as negotiations with key centrist Democratic holdouts in the House and Senate continue, just like many other previous timelines for the infrastructure and social spending bills have been delayed as Schumer and Pelosi manage their razor-thin majorities.
Further complicating matters, a CBO assessment , or “score,” may not come out until the week of Thanksgiving. More centrist Democrats wanted that assessment before voting on the legislation.
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Regardless of when the House passes its $1.85 trillion version of the Build Back Better Act, the content of the bill is likely to change.
Conservative West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, for instance, opposes a four-week paid family and medical leave provision that is included in the House version of the bill.
Other Democrats are unhappy with the House bill’s raising of a cap for federal tax deductions for paid state and local taxes, or SALT, arguing that the change benefits the wealthy.
On top of all of that, Congress must deal with two major deadlines on Dec. 3. That is when government funding is set to run out after a temporary extension and the date until which Congress temporarily suspended the debt ceiling.
Some Democrats are worried about the bill making it to Biden’s desk at all. ...................
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/build-back-better-bill-reconciliation-november-15
