WASHINGTON — House progressives are digging in on their resistance to passing the infrastructure bill this week, repeating their threat to block the measure despite Speaker Nancy Pelosi's call to pass it quickly and tackle the social safety net package later.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., the chair of the progressive caucus, which boasts 95 House members, told NBC News that "nothing has changed" and more than half her caucus is prepared to vote down the infrastructure bill if it comes up before the larger tax-and-spending bill has passed the Senate.
The wrangling comes during a chaotic week where Democrats are locked in a separate standoff with Republicans over how to keep the government funded ahead of a Thursday night deadline and avert debt default before an Oct. 18 cutoff.
The progressive resistance won support from allies the Senate, as Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., called on House colleagues "to vote against the bipartisan infrastructure bill until Congress passes a strong reconciliation bill."
"My fear is that if the dual agreement that was reached is broken, and we just pass the infrastructure bill, the leverage that we have here in the Senate to pass the reconciliation bill will be largely gone," Sanders said in an interview.
The intraparty feuding casts doubt over whether the House can pass the infrastructure bill on Thursday, as Pelosi has planned — even though Democrats are united in support of the legislation. The larger bill isn't yet ready for a vote yet and is still being drafted, as Democrats work through a series of disputes over price tag and policy.
Rep. Annie Kuster, D-N.H., said Democrats will get the job done. But she added, "Probably not this week."
Some Democrats say they're prepared to vote for the infrastructure bill this week.
"We need both bills. To threaten to vote against one until and unless the other one is ready for 'my' approval is not only hostage-taking but risks backfiring," Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., told NBC News. "Because the people who are passionately in favor of the infrastructure bill, if you defeat it, may very well decide, they'll return the favor on your favorite bill: reconciliation."
"We have to understand where the situation of mutually assured destruction here. The old 'MAD' — Cold War. You kill my bill, I'll kill yours. And we don't want to kill either one," he said.
But among Democrats in both chambers, there is growing frustration with centrist Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., for rejecting the $3.5 trillion level without specifying what they would support. Some on the left blame them for holding up both bills.
"If they don't actually negotiate on the entire bill, and we're not going to get too close," Jayapal said. "They need to tell us what they don't agree with, and we need to actually be able to negotiate."
Sinema draws progressive ire
Sinema, in particular, has been an enigma to many in the House.
At a closed-door caucus meeting Tuesday, progressive Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., stood to say the House doesn’t have a two-senator problem, but a one-senator problem, and the one senator hails from a state Biden won, according to three sources.
It was an unmistakable reference to Sinema. Khanna received applause, the sources said.
Two other Democratic members described the mood within some in the caucus as distrust of Sinema, a former progressive House member who has become a centrist, and her negotiating tactics. They have more patience for Manchin, who won in a ruby-red state that Biden lost by nearly 40 points, and believe he'll get to "yes."
Asked to comment, Khanna told NBC News he's less concerned about Manchin than about Sinema.
"We have one senator from a state President Biden carried, from a state where her colleague is 100 percent on board, holding up the agenda of the entire House, of the national Democratic Party. This senator refuses to even give a number," he said. "So here’s my question. When is the Democratic Party going to tell a single senator: It's time to get behind our president, it’s time to get in line?"
In response, Sinema spokesman John LaBombard said: "Senator Sinema does not make decisions based on campaign politics—she makes decisions based on what’s best for Arizona and the country."
Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., said there's a lack of trust that the Senate will act after it has ignored many other bills that the House has passed.
"We have to hold fast and strong to make sure that we pass reconciliation in both houses before we move forward to [infrastructure]," he said. "Because if we don't, who knows what reconciliation is going to look like after Manchin and Sinema and others take a chopping block to it."
In a letter to colleagues today, Pelosi maintained that she wants both bills to pass.
"The change in circumstance regarding the reconciliation bill has necessitated a change in our Build Back Better legislation but not in our values," she wrote. "It would be a dereliction of duty for us to build the infrastructure of America without doing so in a manner that addresses the climate crisis significantly."
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