House Democratic leaders are telling lawmakers they hope to vote on President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” and infrastructure projects on Tuesday, multiple sources told NBC News.
The sources said they want to finish writing a revised $1.75 trillion bill by Sunday, then send it to the Rules Committee for approval on Monday and hold the final vote in the full House on Tuesday.
The schedule is ambitious, as lawmakers are still reviewing the safety net package to win the support of nearly every Democrat in the House and all 50 Democrats in the Senate. It is unclear that they will be able to resolve the outstanding differences and achieve the near-unanimity they need by then.
But the new, self-imposed deadline is an attempt to speed up negotiations and bring the law to a swift conclusion.
This will require approval by Senator Joe Manchin, and DW.Va. and Senator Kirsten Senema, Democrat of Arizona, who forced deep package cuts to win their votes. You’ll also need support from progressive Senator Bernie Sanders, who said the Biden framework is missing some key parts.
However, rival coalitions in the House of Representatives gave a thumbs-up to the new timetable on Saturday, just two days after the White House released a $1.75 trillion framework in hopes of breaking the impasse.
A Democratic aide said House Progressives agreed with Tuesday’s goal.
One of the president’s aides, Rep. Susan Delbiny, D-Wach, said the moderate NDA “supports the passage of both bills as quickly as possible.”
The aide said, “We’ve talked about these two projects long enough. It’s time to get them done. People are tired of politics. It’s time to present and show why we deserve a majority.”
One element that appears as a potential complication of the driving schedule is immigration.
Many Democratic House members in competitive districts are reluctant to vote for a bill that includes legalization if those provisions do not comply with Senate budget rules. It is doubtful that the inclusion of the policies would gain traction with the Senator. But progressives, the Latino Caucus and the Asia-Pacific Caucus are calling for it to be included, to let voters know that they are fighting to address the issue.
In addition to $1.75 trillion in other spending, the White House framework calls for $100 billion for immigration as Democrats seek to provide legal status and benefits to several million undocumented people.
