Progressives signal they’ll back both economic bills ahead of likely vote later this week
Most House progressives signaled during a virtual meeting Sunday they are likely to back the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the social safety net bill when they both come up for a vote.
By Daniella Diaz, Annie Grayer and Manu Raju, CNN
Most House progressives signaled during a virtual meeting Sunday they are likely to back the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the social safety net bill when they both come up for a vote, which is likely to happen after Tuesday.
Several sources on the call told CNN that President Joe Biden has committed to progressives that all 50 Democrats in the Senate would support the legislative text as voted on by the House and that the Congressional Progressive Caucus is taking the President at his word. Moderate Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of Virginia, who are key votes, have not yet publicly endorsed the framework.
House Democratic leaders had said Saturday they planned to push for votes on both the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill and the larger $1.75 trillion economic plan as soon as Tuesday, CNN had previously reported.
Meanwhile, shortly after, a House Democratic leadership aide told CNN that while there has been “extensive progress” on drug price reform, a key initiative for Senate Budget Chairman Bernie Sanders, the Rules committee will not be meeting Monday — meaning a full vote will likely not take place on Tuesday.
The aide said they “intend to vote as early as possible this week,” but there wasn’t a firm timetable.
It’s unclear how many progressives will support the two bills, but the meeting is a hopeful sign that the weeks-long legislative logjam may be broken when the bills come up for a vote.
Based last week, the consensus is Democratic leadership will not bring up infrastructure again until the broader social safety net package is also ready.
The-CNN-Wire
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