House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said he believes members of his caucus will vote against President Biden\u2019s $1.2 trillion infrastructure deal.
\n\u201cI think the \u2026<\/b>
\nHouse Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said he believes members of his caucus will vote against President Biden\u2019s $1.2 trillion infrastructure deal. \u201cI think the majority, an overwhelming amount of our members, are going to vote no, because they don\u2019t view it as an infrastructure bill,\u201d McCarthy (R-Calif.) said at his weekly press briefing on Capitol Hill on Thursday. \u201cI went to the White House, in the Oval Office, that\u2019s exactly what I told the president. We want to build roads, highways, bridges, broadband, airports. We want to reform NEPA. We want to make sure this happens and gets built in less than a decade. And we want to be able to make sure America is competitive,\u201d he said, referring to the National Environmental Policy Act. McCarthy said Democrats, including the president, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, linked the bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure package with the $3.5 trillion spending bill. \u201c That\u2019s not something we want, that\u2019s not something we can afford, that\u2019s not something we support,\u201d he said. He accused Pelosi of flip-flopping on the two bills. \u201cIf she wanted to have a n infrastructure bill, if the p resident want ed to have an infrastructure bill, he should have said it shouldn\u2019t become one bill. He should have focused just on infrastructure,\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cBut what they want to do is restructure and transform America. You just sat through her press conference. This is a culmination of her life\u2019s work in public policy. So it\u2019s not an infrastructure bill, it is one bill, and members see it that way,\u201d he continued. P elosi, at her weekly briefing just before McCarthy\u2019s, said she plans to have a vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill Thursday even though progressives say they won\u2019t support it unless the Senate first takes up the massive spending bill. Asked if she would postpone the vote, Pelosi said, \u201cI do not plan on not doing anything.\u201d \u201cI plan on moving forward in a positive direction,\u201d she added. Members of the House progressive caucus have said they have the votes to kill the $1.2 trillion bill. Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have said they oppose the spending bill because of its cost, jeopardizing both measures.<\/p>\n