House moderates have threatened to filibuster a multi-trillion dollar budget measure until party leaders approve the Senate’s bipartisan infrastructure proposal, according to The Hill.
On August 23, House Democrats were planning to return to Capitol Hill, breaking their lengthy summer break, to adopt the budget blueprint that was passed by the Senate on Wednesday, according to Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
It gives Democrats the go-ahead for drafting a $3.5 trillion economic plan, which is likely to be approved by both chambers in the autumn. The package would include an extension of social safety net programs, expanded health care coverage, immigration rights, and environmental protection.
Afterwards, Pelosi has indicated, the House will vote on the Senate’s $1 trillion infrastructure measure enacted earlier this week.
But a group of centrist Democrats have a different idea.
The centrist members argue in a letter to Pelosi on Friday that their districts just cannot wait for infrastructure funds to be approved.
They are urging Senate’s bipartisan budget bill be passed this month or they will not back the funding bill – a serious threat given the Democrats’ small House majority and Republicans’ unified opposition to the Senate’s budget measure.
With liberals promising to reject infrastructure without a spending plan and centrists swearing to reject a budget without infrastructure, it’s uncertain how Pelosi will move forward.
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