CHAOS ERUPTS IN DEM PARTY: Progressives, Moderates CLASH over upcoming infrastructure, social spending packages

After House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested that she may push through the bipartisan infrastructure bill ahead of the Democrats’ larger social spending package, some House progressives say they are sticking with their original position: they won’t support the first bill unless they also get a vote on the second.

The infrastructure bill is a bipartisan plan to improve the country’s aging roads and bridges, while the Build Back Better spending bill is a social funding package that includes investments in childcare, home care, education and climate change mitigation. Facing a slim margin in the House and a 50-50 Senate, Democrats had planned to advance both bills at once 

“We are a yes on the President’s agenda, a yes on both bills,” Rep. Ayanna Pressley told TIME. Pressley went onto say, “This caucus is united and strident, and I will vote no on a bipartisan infrastructure package without reconciliation, and I am not alone on that.”

But lawmakers are in negotiations on the $3.5 trillion spending package, which Democrats plan to pass through a budget process called reconciliation that will allow them to pass it on a party-line vote. The final bill text is unlikely to be ready by Pelosi’s Thursday deadline for the infrastructure vote.