The group of squeaky wheel "moderates" in the House Democratic caucus, who have been trying to throw their puny weight around on the issue of infrastructure, find themselves in an unusual position: They have no allies in leadership. In the past, both Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Whip Jim Clyburn have backed them up, seeing their desire to distance themselves from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as savvy politics for their districts.
But New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer, seemingly the ringleader of the band of 11 or so lawmakers, who are insisting that the bipartisan Senate infrastructure bill has to be passed now, is getting absolutely no back-up. "I would hope that none of us would do or say anything that would jeopardize passing these bills," Clyburn of South Carolina reportedly told members in a leadership call with the caucus Tuesday.
"A lot of us need to hold hands. We need to be protecting each other and march together," Clyburn said. He added, "These bills will be critical to whether we come back to this House after next year's elections in charge."
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"I know that we have some arguments about who goes first, and the fact of the matter is that we will be doing all of the above," Hoyer reportedly told them, referring to the three items on the legislative agenda for next week's abbreviated session—a budget resolution for the Build Back Better plan and the Senate infrastructure bill, along with voting rights. "Remember the psychology of consensus." He added, "This is a real opportunity to pursue an agenda, and it is important that we have unanimity, and I believe we have it."
There's also the White House factor. On Tuesday, White House spokesman Andrew Bates told lawmakers that Biden is completely behind Pelosi and leadership on their decision. "The President strongly supports the Rule, which provides the mechanism to bring the bipartisan infrastructure bill, the Build Back Better plan, and voting rights legislation to the floor," Bates said by email. "All three are critical elements of the President's agenda, and we hope that every Democratic member supports this effort to advance these important legislative actions."
Pelosi enlisted the loudest and most powerful opponent of the Senate's bipartisan bill to convince the moderates that they weren't being tricked into anything with these votes. Rep. Peter DeFazio, chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in the House, has been rightly complaining for weeks that all of the hard work he had been doing to construct and pass a hard infrastructure bill was totally ignored by the Senate and White House.
DeFazio had been threatening to insist on having a House-Senate conference to change the Senate bill. "We have to hold firm. We have to stay together," he said on the call. "If you want to be in this game, and you want the House to be a meaningful participant, then stay together next week."
DeFazio also rebutted the only real argument Gottheimer has advanced—that it's absolutely urgent that the Senate bill is passed now, because "You've got great momentum, you've got 19 Republicans in the Senate behind this, you've got the AFL-CIO and Chamber of Commerce and others supporting it." Which is pretty ridiculous on its face—the Senate already passed it. Those 19 Senate Republicans aren't going to be able to take their votes away, no matter how long the House takes to pass the bill.
Gottheimer has also argued that the bill has to be passed right now to get projects started immediately "We've got to get shovels in the ground, you're talking about two million jobs a year for the next ten years." DeFazio reminded everyone on the call that the bill isn't going to go into effect before October 1, even if it passes immediately, because it would start with the new fiscal year and when current transportation programs expire.
There are also signs of frustration with the Gottheimer gang building among the Democrats who are neither in the large Congressional Progressive Caucus or the Blue Dog/Problem Solvers gang. Here's Philadelphia Rep. Brendan Boyle, who is adamantly opposed to what the Blue Dogs are doing and vowing to vote against the Senate bill if the two-track path for the bills agreed upon by Biden, Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer isn’t followed.
What Pelosi and team are planning is a single procedural vote—"the Rule"—that will allow for the Senate's hard infrastructure bill to be debated, set up the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act for a vote, and advance the budget resolution the Senate passed last week that will allow for the committees to start passing their parts of the $3.5 trillion Build Back Better budget resolution. Final votes on infrastructure and reconciliation would happen when Congress returns from the remainder of August recess at the end of September, or possibly even October depending on how all the complicated pieces that keep the wheels of government turning fall. Remember, there's a lot going on aside from the delicate budget reconciliation negotiations, including the debt ceiling and government funding.
Gottheimer and crew are painting themselves into a corner. They may have thought that Biden's willingness to let their Senate counterparts freelance and go off script would extend to them. Democrats Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema were allowed to drive the process in the Senate for whatever reason, but probably to add a veneer of bipartisanship to Biden's plans. Now that that's been achieved, the House is supposed to do its part and pass the bills. Yes, they'll have more say on the project's second track, the Build Back Better reconciliation bill. But right now, the House trouble makers are standing alone, mostly because they're standing in the way.
But New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer, seemingly the ringleader of the band of 11 or so lawmakers, who are insisting that the bipartisan Senate infrastructure bill has to be passed now, is getting absolutely no back-up. "I would hope that none of us would do or say anything that would jeopardize passing these bills," Clyburn of South Carolina reportedly told members in a leadership call with the caucus Tuesday.
"A lot of us need to hold hands. We need to be protecting each other and march together," Clyburn said. He added, "These bills will be critical to whether we come back to this House after next year's elections in charge."
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"I know that we have some arguments about who goes first, and the fact of the matter is that we will be doing all of the above," Hoyer reportedly told them, referring to the three items on the legislative agenda for next week's abbreviated session—a budget resolution for the Build Back Better plan and the Senate infrastructure bill, along with voting rights. "Remember the psychology of consensus." He added, "This is a real opportunity to pursue an agenda, and it is important that we have unanimity, and I believe we have it."
There's also the White House factor. On Tuesday, White House spokesman Andrew Bates told lawmakers that Biden is completely behind Pelosi and leadership on their decision. "The President strongly supports the Rule, which provides the mechanism to bring the bipartisan infrastructure bill, the Build Back Better plan, and voting rights legislation to the floor," Bates said by email. "All three are critical elements of the President's agenda, and we hope that every Democratic member supports this effort to advance these important legislative actions."
Pelosi enlisted the loudest and most powerful opponent of the Senate's bipartisan bill to convince the moderates that they weren't being tricked into anything with these votes. Rep. Peter DeFazio, chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in the House, has been rightly complaining for weeks that all of the hard work he had been doing to construct and pass a hard infrastructure bill was totally ignored by the Senate and White House.
DeFazio had been threatening to insist on having a House-Senate conference to change the Senate bill. "We have to hold firm. We have to stay together," he said on the call. "If you want to be in this game, and you want the House to be a meaningful participant, then stay together next week."
DeFazio also rebutted the only real argument Gottheimer has advanced—that it's absolutely urgent that the Senate bill is passed now, because "You've got great momentum, you've got 19 Republicans in the Senate behind this, you've got the AFL-CIO and Chamber of Commerce and others supporting it." Which is pretty ridiculous on its face—the Senate already passed it. Those 19 Senate Republicans aren't going to be able to take their votes away, no matter how long the House takes to pass the bill.
Gottheimer has also argued that the bill has to be passed right now to get projects started immediately "We've got to get shovels in the ground, you're talking about two million jobs a year for the next ten years." DeFazio reminded everyone on the call that the bill isn't going to go into effect before October 1, even if it passes immediately, because it would start with the new fiscal year and when current transportation programs expire.
There are also signs of frustration with the Gottheimer gang building among the Democrats who are neither in the large Congressional Progressive Caucus or the Blue Dog/Problem Solvers gang. Here's Philadelphia Rep. Brendan Boyle, who is adamantly opposed to what the Blue Dogs are doing and vowing to vote against the Senate bill if the two-track path for the bills agreed upon by Biden, Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer isn’t followed.
What Pelosi and team are planning is a single procedural vote—"the Rule"—that will allow for the Senate's hard infrastructure bill to be debated, set up the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act for a vote, and advance the budget resolution the Senate passed last week that will allow for the committees to start passing their parts of the $3.5 trillion Build Back Better budget resolution. Final votes on infrastructure and reconciliation would happen when Congress returns from the remainder of August recess at the end of September, or possibly even October depending on how all the complicated pieces that keep the wheels of government turning fall. Remember, there's a lot going on aside from the delicate budget reconciliation negotiations, including the debt ceiling and government funding.
Gottheimer and crew are painting themselves into a corner. They may have thought that Biden's willingness to let their Senate counterparts freelance and go off script would extend to them. Democrats Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema were allowed to drive the process in the Senate for whatever reason, but probably to add a veneer of bipartisanship to Biden's plans. Now that that's been achieved, the House is supposed to do its part and pass the bills. Yes, they'll have more say on the project's second track, the Build Back Better reconciliation bill. But right now, the House trouble makers are standing alone, mostly because they're standing in the way.