Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrestled her reluctant liberal faction into voting to pass a bipartisan infrastructure bill, providing President Joe Biden with a desperately needed legislative victory.
The House passed the bill late on Friday, 228-206, with 13 GOP votes, just enough to give Democrats the bare majority needed to pass the bill. Six Democrats voted against the bill.
The $1.2 trillion measure passed the Senate on Aug. 10 and had been languishing in the House, where liberals had refused to help pass it unless a $1.75 trillion social welfare bill was approved along with it.
The infrastructure measure was pushed over the finish line in the House after last-minute lobbying from the president, who called reluctant liberals huddled in a committee room to assure them the social welfare measure bill, which he named the Build Back Better Act, would not be left behind.
He issued a statement during debate on the bill, pledging, “I am confident that during the week of November 15, the House will pass the Build Back Better Act.”
Now that the House has passed the infrastructure bill, Biden can sign it into law.
The infrastructure measure funds roads, bridges, water projects, broadband expansion, and new electric vehicle charging stations.
Democrats have been desperate to finally pass a major Biden economic initiative. The president’s poll numbers have sunk by double digits beginning in August, and the party took a beating in the Nov. 2 election in key races. Republicans swept state offices in Virginia and nearly defeated incumbent Gov. Phil Murphy in deep-blue New Jersey.
Many lawmakers in the mostly liberal caucus believe they can win back voters by passing both parts of the Biden economic agenda.
Democrats will vote on the $1.75 trillion social welfare spending legislation by Thanksgiving, Democratic leaders said Friday.
That measure, which would provide an array of new government programs and subsidies, won’t get a vote until next week or later, Democratic leaders said, in order to allow time for the Congressional Budget Office to provide a cost analysis of the 2,100-page legislation.
The bill would pay for free preschool, expanded Obamacare subsidies, paid family leave, an extension of the child tax credit, money to help people care for the disabled and elderly, a new hearing benefit for Medicare recipients, and much more. The measure also includes a provision temporarily legalizing farmworkers and other essential workers living here illegally, although it does not provide a path to citizenship.
The bill would repeal a $10,000 cap on state and local property taxes, which blue-state Democrats have sought to eliminate since it was implemented during the Trump administration, and it includes a provision lowering the cost of many Medicare prescription drug prices. The measure is offset with new IRS tax enforcement and tax hikes on the wealthy.
Pelosi, a California Democrat, had hoped to pass the social welfare bill alongside the infrastructure measure on Friday but was forced to delay consideration after a handful of centrists refused to vote for it until they had a chance to review the still-unwritten CBO score.
Instead, the House planned to take a lesser step with a vote late Friday to advance the rule for debating the $1.75 trillion bill, which provided liberals with a small step forward on their priority legislation.
The infrastructure bill passed after a day of chaotic intraparty drama that nearly caused Democratic leaders to pull the plug on considering either bill.
Pelosi was unable to convince a handful of centrists to vote for the social welfare spending bill due to the missing CBO analysis, so she instead decided to only bring up the infrastructure bill, which could still pass with the party’s razor-thin majority.
Liberals balked at the move, however, leaving Pelosi to calculate whether she could still lose some Democrats and still pass the bill with the help of a small number of Republican votes.
Pelosi said hours before the vote that she believed many members of the House Progressive Caucus would vote for the infrastructure bill but did not promise it would pass, teasing reporters, “We’ll see, won’t we?”
Pelosi has long been praised for her ability to wrangle even the most stubborn members of her caucus to get behind major legislation, most notably the Obamacare bill in 2009.
With Biden’s last-minute help, she was able to pull it off again with the infrastructure bill, even though the measure left many liberals unsatisfied over missing green energy and mass transit provisions.
While some Republicans voted to pass the infrastructure measure, which was negotiated by Biden as well as GOP and Democratic senators, party lawmakers unanimously oppose the Build Back Better plan.
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They argued Friday the bill spends recklessly and would damage the economy by increasing inflation, taxes, and energy prices.
“No wonder they want to do this in the dark of night,” House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, said, advising Democrats, “Listen to what Virginia voters said. Stop this madness.”
