Progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said on Tuesday she will vote no on a bipartisan $550 billion infrastructure bill that's crucial to President Joe Biden's ambitious Build Back Better agenda 'unless I get some new information.'
The Squad member indicated to reporters that she's unhappy with Speaker Nancy Pelosi's decision to go ahead with a vote on the legislation while a Democrat-backed $3.5 trillion measure is being stalled by objections from moderates.
The larger measure has no Republican support. Democrats are hoping to pass it through the reconciliation process, which would require a simple majority and prevent a GOP filibuster.
But with a slim majority in the House and Senate, the president's party needs to vote in lock-step to pass his sweeping agenda.
'I told all of you that we wouldn't go on to the [infrastructure bill until] we had the reconciliation bill passed by the Senate. We were right on schedule to do all of that, until 10 days ago, a week ago, when I heard the news that this number had to come down,' Pelosi told colleagues in private, sources told NBC.
'It all changed, so our approach had to change.'
Rep. Ocasio Cortez told reporters on Tuesday that she'd vote no on the bipartisan infrastructure bill expected on the House floor Thursday, after Speaker Pelosi told Democrats in private that a larger, $3.5 trillion spending package wouldn't come to a vote until after
The $550 billion measure and the $3.5 trillion package are crucial to President Joe Biden's Build Back Better agenda
Moderate Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) are going to the White House today as Biden continues to court his fellow party members.
Late last week Biden held marathon meetings with nearly two dozen progressive and moderate lawmakers to get his agenda passed.
He's now considering limits to tuition-free community college and universal childcare to cut down the massive, progressive-backed $3.5 trillion package in a bid to pacify moderates and spending hawks.
The White House and Democratic leaders are weighing attaching or strengthening income caps to a number of key agenda items, according to two officials familiar with the discussions.
Discussions about these income limits, known as means tests in Washington lingo, are the latest sign of strain within the majority party over the size of the sprawling social safety net and climate change package.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki declined to comment on whether the administration would agree to income caps on things like free community college, but did note that means tests are common and that the president has supported placing income restrictions on government programs.
'Every family is not eligible for the child tax credit in this country. Every person is not eligible for the earned income tax credit,' Psaki noted.
Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin will be at the White House on Tuesday
The $3.5 trillion Biden proposal outlined earlier this year included free community college, expanded child tax credits and universal preschool for any U.S. citizen.
But Democrats are now considering whether to cap eligibility based on income, two sources told Reuters.
They're also discussing limiting who can receive tax credits for electric cars.
The White House, for example, want to create a $7,500 tax credit for any taxpayers who purchase electric cars.
A House Democratic version of the bill said individual taxpayers must have an adjusted gross income of no more than $400,000 to get the credit, but Senate Democrats are considering a lower threshold that could go as low as $100,000, sources said.
Democrats are also considering whether to lower the income threshold for eligibility of the expanded child tax credit, which is set to expire at the end of the year unless Democrats make good on their promise to extend the added benefit by four years.
Currently, the tax credit phases out for married couples making over $400,000, but Democrats are considering lowering the cap, sources say.
Rep. Josh Gottheimer is among the moderate Democrats holding out on the $3.5 trillion bill
Democratic leaders have been relying on a two-track agenda to pass both measures, aimed at keeping as many party members happy as possible.
But facing opposition from moderates in the House like Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Pelosi is gambling that the 93-member Progressive Caucus would go along with the change of plan.
Progressive Caucus chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) told MSNBC on Monday night, 'I think that we are still very clear we need to get the reconciliation bill done.'
'It can't be just a framework, because we need to make sure that this delay that leads to death of these things does not happen.'
Gottheimer told PBS on Monday that he's spoken to Jayapal 'quite a bit' on the two bills.
He said the reconciliation bill is 'critically important' to the US but added 'what's also important is that we have to get done this first package.'
'It's been sitting in the House. This is the bipartisan infrastructure bill. And in there are resources to fix our roads, our bridges, our tunnels,' Gottheimer said.
Democrats took a legislative blow on Monday night when Senate Republicans blocked a bill to avert a government shutdown and suspend the debt ceiling.
The stopgap measure to fund the federal government past September 30 was voted down along party lines. It needed 60 votes to pass.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer switched his vote to 'no' because it enables him to call for another vote on it.
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