Monday Morning Memo – October 4

That deep division—between Progressives and Moderates— was on full display last week. For some moderate members, like Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA)—whose district had been Republican until 2018—passing the infrastructure bill as soon as possible could be the difference between being elected in 2022 or losing. “That is singularly one of the most transformative things that we can do to our country,” Spanberger said, urging a vote on the infrastructure plan. “We are unified on this.”  Moderates urged a vote all last week promising a deal on the Build Back Better Act would come later. For Progressives, the promise of a deal is not nearly enough. Brooklyn Progressive Rep. Nydia Velazquez said, “We have a chance for a once-in-a-generation investment in working families and in the future of our planet.  That’s why I will not vote for an infrastructure bill without passage of the Build Back Better Plan.”  

Amidst the bitter feud, President Biden spent Friday afternoon at the Capitol. In his first meeting with the full Democratic Caucus since becoming President, Biden lobbied lawmakers on these two transformative bills, the key to his agenda. After promising (again and again) a vote on Infrastructure, Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared that she would not force a vote on the infrastructure bill until a broader agreement could be reached on Reconciliation. “But we cannot and I will not ask you to vote for [the infrastructure bill] until we have the best possible offering that we can stick with. And it’s not just me — this is about the president of the United States,” said Speaker Pelosi at the closed door meeting. During that meeting, Biden also threw out a much smaller number for the reconciliation bill, discussing a range from $1.9 trillion to $2.3 trillion with members of the House Democratic Caucus, something that Progressives (beginning with Senator Bernie Sanders) have aggressively pushed back on.

Complicating matters further, a strange “promise document” signed weeks earlier by Senator Joe Manchin and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was released Thursday. In the document, Manchin made clear his intention to limit a reconciliation to $1.5 trillion (as well as other preconditions for his support). The timing of his announcement—and his dismissal of the Social Security and Medicare provisions as “insanity” while doing so—further enraged Progressives. In the future, the agreement may also come back to haunt Schumer in his relationships with Progressives and desire to avoid a primary in 2022. “I assume he’s saying the president is insane because this is the president’s agenda. Look, this is why we’re not voting for the bipartisan [infrastructure] bill until we get agreement on the reconciliation bill, and we’ve got a ways to go. After that statement, we probably have even more people willing to vote no on the bipartisan bill,” said Chair of the House Progressive Caucus Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.).

On a significant positive note: Congress did avert a government shutdown. The Senate and House approved a measure to fund the government into early December. President Biden signed the bill hours later. The stopgap funding sustains federal agencies’ existing spending until December 3, at which point Congress must adopt another continuing resolution, or pass the dozen appropriations bills that fund federal agencies through the 2022 fiscal year. Notably, the measure also includes billions of dollars to assist in responding to two recent, deadly hurricanes that battered the Gulf Coast and Eastern Seaboard, as well as other money to aid in resettling refugees arriving from Afghanistan.