Infrastructure setback frustrates Democrats nearing victory on spending

House Democrats’ falling short yet again of leadership’s publicly set goal to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill is frustrating members of the party who see it as undermining the actual progress they’ve made on President Biden’s agenda. 

Democrats across the spectrum hailed the framework for the $1.75 trillion social spending package the White House unveiled Thursday as a major step forward. Hours later, House Democratic leaders’ inability to get progressives on board with a vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill cast a shadow on any appearance of unity. 

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) leader, said it should have been clear to Democratic leaders that many in her nearly 100-member caucus wouldn’t be ready to back the bipartisan infrastructure bill without at least firm legislative text for the social spending package.

She also argued that creating another “arbitrary timeline” — which Democratic leaders have defended as a way to pressure negotiators into a deal — wasn’t helpful. 

“This is what we were always saying. Don’t rush this. And we tried to say that to people. Don’t rush this. Don’t put another arbitrary timeline on here. Give us the text and let us get through it. Let us make sure that everybody is on board, and we will pass both the bills together,” Jayapal said on CNN’s “The Situation Room.”

Jayapal hailed the progress on the framework, noting that some of the legislative text is already public. 

“We have the text, and I really think it’s going to be quick here for us to pass both these bills through the House,” she said. 

But repeated failures to meet self-imposed deadlines are proving to be embarrassing setbacks for Democratic leaders and exacerbating tensions between centrists and progressives.

“The fact is that we had this framework together. And not to trust the president of the United States and the Speaker says a lot about the individuals who decided that their own agenda was more important than our working together,” said Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.), a centrist who has been pushing for months for the House to quickly vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill. 

“It wasn’t a good day,” Costa said. 

Asked if the day’s events hurt Biden, Costa replied, “It doesn’t help him.”

The scene Thursday was similar to the one that unfolded a month ago. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) originally made a commitment to a group of moderates in August that the House would take up the bipartisan infrastructure bill by Sept. 27. 

That date got pushed back to Sept. 30 and then delayed again to Oct. 1 as progressives held firm that they wouldn’t vote for it without clear assurances for the other bill. The House ended up passing a short-term extension of expiring federal highway programs on Oct. 1 in lieu of the bipartisan infrastructure bill, just as it did on Thursday.

Pelosi then pushed for a Thursday vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill — which the Senate passed in August — during a rare Democratic caucus meeting with Biden. 

Democratic leaders had set a Thursday goal on the bipartisan infrastructure bill for three reasons: to give Biden a legislative victory as he departed for Europe to meet with world leaders on climate change, boost Democratic gubernatorial candidates in Virginia and New Jersey, and renew federal highway programs that were set to expire on Sunday. 

Pelosi told Democrats that “when the president gets off that plane, we want him to have a vote of confidence from this Congress.”

Biden also told Democrats it was imperative to enact his agenda not just to clinch a victory for their party but to show on an existential level that American democracy can still function. “I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that the House and Senate majorities and my presidency will be determined by what happens in the next week,” he said. 

Yet progressives maintained that their refusal to back the bipartisan infrastructure bill before the social spending package is complete is better for Biden’s agenda in the long run.

“The issue is that we don’t have a deal to get the agenda done. Once we have a deal to get the agenda done, we’re all gonna vote for it, and the president will have his win,” said Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), the top vote counter for the CPC.

While the framework served as a marker of progress from the months-long negotiations over the social spending package, Democrats say the provisions still aren’t final. Some liberals are pushing to restore key priorities that were left out, such as paid family and medical leave and allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices.

But in a sign of the expansive nature of the provisions that are in the framework, the CPC issued a formal endorsement in principle. The legislation includes some major transformations of the social safety net, including universal preschool, limiting families’ child care costs to no more than 7 percent of their income if they earn up to 250 percent of state median income and a one-year renewal of the child tax credit. 

And while it doesn’t go as far as expanding Medicare coverage to include dental and vision, it does establish benefits for hearing-related costs.  

Despite the delays and setbacks inherent in the legislative sausage-making, other Democrats argue that they’ll ultimately be rewarded if they can enact the framework’s policies into law.  

Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), a member of the CPC who pushed hard for the child care provisions, called them “truly transformational” in a way that will directly help working families.  

“I’ll be honest, when I’m back home, in talking to my constituents, none of them are following the day-to-day intricacies,” Jacobs said. “But they will feel the impact of this Build Back Better framework when we get it done. And I think that’s what matters the most.”