The $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, which includes $550 billion of new spending, could be closer to passage after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicated Sunday she would like to consider it together with the budget resolution.
The development is significant because Pelosi, D-California, faces pushback from moderate House Democrats on her stated position that she will not allow the House to consider the bipartisan bill passed by the Senate earlier this month until the Senate had also passed a $3.5 trillion “social infrastructure” package that no Republicans in Congress support. In a “Dear Colleague” letter Pelosi addressed to fellow Democrats Sunday, the speaker said she will seek to tie the two bills together.
“Our goal is to pass the budget resolution the week of Aug. 23rd so that we may pass Democrats’ Build Back Better agenda via reconciliation as soon as possible,” Pelosi wrote. “To that end, I have requested that the Rules Committee explore the possibility of a rule that advances both the budget resolution and the bipartisan infrastructure package. This will put us on a path to advance the infrastructure bill and the reconciliation bill.”
The bipartisan bill, while it does not contain a reinstatement of advance refunding or other top muni objectives, is still considered a positive for the market because of the spending contained in it and its expansion of private activity bond authority.
The bill would expand PAB eligibility for broadband and carbon capture projects, and double issuance authority for highway PABs.
Both the House and Senate must adopt the fiscal 2022 budget resolution before they can move forward with the reconciliation bill that contains Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda. The Senate has already done so, and the House is expected to move forward with it when it returns next week.
Pelosi’s maneuver is a response to nine moderate Democrats who last week stated they will not advance the budget resolution until the House passes the bipartisan bill. Pelosi has to walk a fine line because a defection by nine members of her caucus is more than enough to block passage of legislation unless several Republicans cross over.
That scenario seems next to impossible, as not a single Senate Republican supported the budget resolution. Republicans have criticized the $3.5 trillion agenda as a reckless spending spree, and it is expected to include many Democratic priorities that Republicans have long opposed, including a major expansion of Medicare.
“When the House returns on August 23rd, we will proceed in a way that builds consensus in our Caucus, promotes the values of our party and advances the President’s transformative vision to Build Back Better,” Pelosi wrote.”
But the Democrats opposed to Pelosi’s strategy, led by Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, indicated Sunday that Pelosi’s minor concession does not change their position.
In a series of tweets Monday morning, Gottheimer called the bipartisan bill a “once in a generation investment in our communities” and said the House “should immediately pass this critical legislation.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, has said he hopes to have the reconciliation bill drafted by Sept. 15.
