The Hill has reported that two Dem senators close to the bipartisan infrastructure bill discussions happening in the House are now expecting Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CA) to cancel today’s scheduled vote due to not having the needed votes.
The report noted that two people, who are staying anonymous, say they are in contact with Democrats in the House who think they will not have the votes since there are “at least two-dozen progressives planning to make a ‘no’ vote on infrastructure without a different vote on the larger social spending program.”
“They will not vote for it on Thursday. Enough of the members understand they would be removing the Build Back Better agenda,” one Democrat familiar with the discussions said to the Hill.
“Nancy will remove it,” one of the senators familiar with the discussion reported that. “We are pretty sure she won’t let it go up for a vote. She will meet with moderate Dems and say, ‘Listen, I don’t put things up when for votes when the votes aren’t there. It does not help your cause to have it fail, it does not help the president to have it fail.’”
Democrat Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (WA) — the chair of the far-left Progressive Caucus that has 94 members — threatened the bill last week and said that at least 48 of her radical liberal friends will stop the infrastructure program saying it won’t succeed without reconciliation.
This week, the congresswoman continued these threats in her appearance on MSNBC, saying she now wants “a vote” about reconciliation before infrastructure vote.
Over the weekend, Pelosi repeated her long-standing comment of “I am never allowing a bill that does not have the votes” while saying that Democrats will “pass the bill this week.”
Pelosi added that “You cannot choose the time. You have to wait until you have the votes.”
However, also this week, Pelosi broke her pledge to “moderate” Democrats, stating that she would vote on the bill and scheduled the vote for Thursday. The infighting with Pelosi was due to the delay of votes, to allow more time for Pelosi to get more votes.
Author: Blake Ambrose
