Last week, President Biden capped a hectic week of negotiations when he told House Democrats to hold off on a vote for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act until they reach agreement on a scaled-back reconciliation package. Notably, President Biden indicated that he would like to see the package’s spending total kept to no more than $2 trillion. The $2 trillion range is far less than what progressives have called for, but it is closer to the $1.5 trillion topline figure floated by Senator Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia). Additionally, Democratic leaders briefly debated trying to adopt a rule that would have officially linked passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act to the Reconciliation bill, but quickly decided against it, citing a lack of votes in favor of such a move. Nevertheless, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) sent a letter to House Democrats openly drawing such a connection last Friday. “Clearly, the Bipartisan Infrastructure bill will pass once we have agreement on the reconciliation bill,” she said. Due to the delay in passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act — which contained a full 5-year reauthorization of federal highway and transit funding— Congress passed a short-term reauthorization of those programs through the end of October.
