“When the president gets off that plane we want him to have a vote of confidence from this Congress,” Pelosi told lawmakers, the person at the private meeting said.īut no votes were scheduled. But Jayapal said she did not hear an urgent request from him, which emboldened progressives to halt the hoped-for Thursday vote. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Biden asked the House to vote on the related $1 trillion infrastructure bill, which already cleared the Senate but became tangled in deliberations over the broader bill. “We want to see the actual text because we don’t want any confusion and misunderstandings,” she said. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., the progressive leader, said her caucus endorsed the framework, even as progressive lawmakers worked to delay further action. With the framework being converted to a 1,600-page legislative text for review, lawmakers and aides cautioned it had not yet been agreed to. Biden has vowed to cover the entire cost of the plan, ensuring it does not pile onto the debt load. Revenue to help pay for the package would also come from rolling back some of the Trump administration’s 2017 tax cuts, along with stepped-up enforcement of tax-dodgers by the IRS. A special “billionaires tax” was not included. Gerald Connolly of Virginia.īiden’s proposal would be paid for by imposing a new 5% surtax on income over $10 million a year, and instituting a new 15% corporate minimum tax, keeping with his plans to have no new taxes on those earning less than $400,000 a year, officials said. Twice over the course of the hour-long meeting Democratic lawmakers rose to their feet and started yelling: “Vote, vote, vote,” said Rep.
elections on the horizon, he said it’s not “hyperbole to say that the House and Senate majorities and my presidency will be determined by what happens in the next week.”Īt one point, Biden “asked for a spirited, enthusiastic vote on his plan,” said Rep. “The rest of the world wonders whether we can function.”
“We are at an inflection point,” he said. In his meeting with lawmakers at the Capitol, Biden made clear how important it was to show progress as he headed to the summits. The White House calls it the largest-ever investment in climate change and the biggest improvement to the nation’s healthcare system in more than a decade. Taking form after months of negotiations, Biden’s emerging bill would still be among the most sweeping of its kind in a generation, modeled on New Deal and Great Society programs. Republicans remain overwhelmingly opposed, forcing Biden to rely on the Democrats’ narrow majority in Congress with no votes to spare in the Senate and few in the House. The two Democrats have almost single-handedly reduced the size and scope of their party’s big vision, and are crucial to sealing the deal. However, another, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, was less committal: “This is all in the hands of the House right now.” Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, said, “I look forward to getting this done.” An additional $100 billion to bolster the immigration and border processing system could boost the overall package to $1.85 trillion if it clears Senate rules. There’s also a one-year extension of a child care tax credit that was put in place during the COVID-19 rescue and new child care subsidies.
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Still in the mix, a long list of other priorities: free prekindergarten for all youngsters, expanded health care programs - including the launch of a new $35 billion hearing aid benefit for people with Medicare - and $555 billion to tackle climate change. Paid family leave and efforts to lower prescription drug pricing are now gone entirely from the package, drawing outrage from some lawmakers and advocates. The revised package has lost some top priorities, frustrating many lawmakers as the president’s ambitions make way for the political realities of the narrowly divided Congress. “I need your votes,” Biden told the lawmakers at the Capitol, according to a person who requested anonymity to discuss the private remarks.īut final votes will not be called for some time. Together with a nearly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, Biden claimed the infusion of federal investments would be a domestic achievement modeled on those of Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson. “It will fundamentally change the lives of millions of people for the better,” he said about the package, which he badly wanted before the summits to show the world American democracy still works. The fast-moving developments put Democrats closer to a hard-fought deal, but battles remain as they press to finish the final draft in the days and weeks ahead.