A Busy Week To Say The Least
Speaker Pelosi Aims to Pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure Package, Reconciliation, and a Continuing Resolution All This Week!
Needless to say, that is a lot for Democrats to accomplish in one week. First, we will start with the Continuing Resolution (CR). The House has already passed a CR; however, attached to the CR included extending the debt limit and additional supplemental funding for disaster relief and funding for Afghanistan refugee resettlement. The Senate is expected to vote on this CR today (September 27th), and it will fail to get the 60 votes necessary to proceed due to Republican objections to the inclusion of the debt limit. After that, both chambers need to find an agreement on a CR to avoid a government shutdown. This will likely be found through a “clean” CR that needs to pass both the House and Senate and be signed by the President by midnight September 30th.
Vote on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Package
Speaker Pelosi has announced that the House will vote on the Bipartisan Infrastructure package on Thursday, September 30th. The critical question remains – will it pass? Only a handful of Republicans are expected to vote for the bill, while progressive Democrats have been saying they will vote against it without significant progress toward the reconciliation package. Speaker Pelosi has promised a “framework” for the reconciliation package, and we will see if this is enough for progressives to vote in favor of the bipartisan package. But with very tight margins, the passage of the bipartisan package is far from certain.
Reconciliation Framework and Vote?
On Sunday, the House Budget Committee packaged the reconciliation package and has moved it to the House Rules Committee. Speaker Pelosi has announced that House and Senate Democrats are negotiating to develop an overarching framework and potentially actual legislative text on a reconciliation package. Leadership is developing a reconciliation package for a potential vote on Thursday because they need progressive Democrats to vote for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Package. However, this is a tall order for House Democrats to complete over the next few days, as there remain significant disagreements among Democrats on what should and should not be included. It will be an interesting week for sure, but anything that happens this week on reconciliation should not be considered final. There is still a significant opportunity for change.
Check out this week’s episode of the Healthcare Preview podcast, now available on Apple Podcasts, click here to subscribe.
