Down to the wire: Congressional leaders work to meet infrastructure deadline
WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — The House has its final vote Thursday on the sweeping bipartisan infrastructure bill. The bill includes $550 billion in new spending for roads, bridges, broadband and other priorities, as well as a $3.5 trillion slate of social, health and environmental programs.
The Democratic-controlled Senate and House of Representatives are expected to pass the temporary funding bill by midnight on Thursday, to avoid a partial government shutdown.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi faced opposition from an influential group of progressive Democrats who warned she must hold it back until a larger, $3.5 trillion domestic investment bill is nailed down.
Moderates are pushing for a smaller package, and negotiations on it could last weeks or longer.
Besides keeping government operations running, the stopgap spending bill would provide aid for communities hard-hit by hurricanes, wildfires and other natural disasters. Money to help Afghan refugees is also included.
House Democrats urged moderate Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema to say publicly what they want, having rejected the size of Biden’s $3.5 trillion social investment bill.
“They need to come up with their counteroffer and then we sit down and negotiate from there,” said U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, chair of the House Progressive Caucus.
The senators so far have refused to lay out the size and scope of a package they’d support.
Manchin issued a statement on Wednesday saying, “Spending trillions more on new and expanded government programs, when we can’t even pay for the essential social programs like Social Security and Medicare, is the definition of fiscal insanity.”
This story is developing. Refresh for updates.
Reuters contributed to this story.