The House and Senate were both expected to pass short-term spending bills to fund the government, but a planned vote on a $1 trillion infrastructure bill was in limbo amid deep party divisions.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday vowed to push ahead with a House vote on a $1 trillion infrastructure bill that passed the Senate with bipartisan support, driving Democrats toward a showdown between moderate supporters of the bill and liberals who have said they will bring it down without progress on a separate social policy measure. Democratic leaders told lawmakers that no votes would occur before 9 p.m., but did not rule out the possibility of completing work on the bipartisan bill Thursday evening. Democrats entered Thursday juggling four consequential tasks on the final day of the current fiscal year: keeping the government open past midnight, ensuring it can pay its debts, securing the infrastructure bill and drafting a climate change and social safety net bill that the speaker called the “culmination” of her congressional career. They accomplished the first task, as both the House and Senate managed to pass a bill to keep funding flowing into early December, removing the immediate threat of a government shutdown.
