Pelosi on infrastructure bill: ‘I’m never bringing a bill to the floor that doesn’t have the votes’

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said when asked Sunday about a vote on Senate-passed bipartisan infrastructure legislation that she is “never bringing a bill to the floor that doesn’t have the votes.” 

“Let me just say we’re going to pass the bill this week,” Pelosi said on ABC’s “This Week.”

“I’m never bringing a bill to the floor that doesn’t have the votes.”

Speaker Nancy Pelosi tells @GStephanopoulos that she may not bring the bipartisan infrastructure bill to the House floor Monday as she previously committed to. https://t.co/iBAc9TuzAq pic.twitter.com/AmWyFLu4YO

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) September 26, 2021

Pelosi acknowledged that the bill’s language included a commitment to bring it to the floor for a vote on Monday. 

“You cannot choose the date. You have to go when you have the votes,” Pelosi added, citing the failed Republican effort to overturn the Affordable Care Act on the anniversary of that legislation.

Pelosi added that the vote “may be” Monday, but only if she had the votes to pass it. 

Her comments follow remarks from Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus. 

“Monday is an arbitrary deadline. There is no reason to bring it up. It’s just an attempt to pass one bill and leave behind the bill that has the majority of the president’s agenda,” Jayapal said last week on “CNN Newsroom.”

While moderates say the bipartisan infrastructure bill should move forward ahead of the proposed $3.5 trillion Democratic spending plan, progressive leaders in the House say they will not vote for the bipartisan legislation unless it comes with the larger reconciliation package. 

Read more from The Hill:

Pelosi on $3.5T spending package: It ‘seems self-evident’ it will be less than proposed