A key House moderate is criticizing his progressive colleagues for threatening to derail President Joe Bidenâs agenda if the chamber holds a stand-alone vote on the bipartisan infrastructure package.
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) told CNNâs âNew Dayâ Wednesday, âEveryone is working around the clock, including Sen. on getting it done. She was at the White House yesterday. Obviously, I wasnât in that meeting, and all I know is that great progress was made, and weâre going to keep working today.â
âBut again⌠these are two separate pieces of legislation, you donât hold up and not vote for an infrastructure package thatâs historic, once in a century, that will help fix everything from water to broadband to fighting climate change to the Gateway Tunnel between New York and New Jersey, you donât hold that up and hold it hostage while weâre working on another piece of legislation,â he continued.
Finally, Gottheimer said, âWeâre going to get both done. But Iâll tell you, it just doesnât make any sense to me that you have a faction of folks in my party that would blow up the presidentâs agenda, refuse to vote on infrastructure as some sort of way to hold up progress. So thatâs why I believe at the end of the day, weâll unify, weâll get it done.â
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Gottheimer has been a lead negotiator for moderates in the debate over the handling of the roughly $1 trillion infrastructure bill and a $3.5 trillion spending package.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) previously committed to holding a vote on the infrastructure bill on Sept. 27. However, as progressive Democrats threatened to sink that bill unless it was accompanied by the separate spending package, she pushed the vote back to Thursday.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chair of the House Progressive Caucus, told CNN on Sept. 22, âWe want to make sure that both bills are moving together, and weâre going to hold to that commitment. And so yes, half our members, more than half our members, will not move the bipartisan bill without the reconciliation bill being passed.â
On Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) tweeted, âI strongly urge my House colleagues to vote against the bipartisan infrastructure bill until Congress passes a strong reconciliation bill.â
âLetâs be crystal clear. If the bipartisan infrastructure bill is passed on its own on Thursday, this will be in violation of an agreement that was reached within the Democratic Caucus in Congress,â he said.
