Leaders pressed for a vote on a separate infrastructure bill, but the fate of both measures was in doubt amid party divisions, despite pleas from President Biden.
Facing resistance by a group of moderates in their ranks, Democratic leaders put their $1.85 trillion social policy, climate and tax package on hold on Friday, instead pushing to pass a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package whose fate was uncertain amid progressive opposition. The retreat came after centrist Democrats balked at supporting the social policy plan without a formal estimate of its cost and economic effects. Hoping to convey movement toward approving it, House leaders said they would hold a procedural vote that would allow consideration of the measure in the future, with hopes of passing it by Thanksgiving. But the delay and uncertainty were a setback for President Biden and Democratic congressional leaders, who had hoped to pass both measures on Friday and instead risked ending the day empty-handed, as intraparty feuding between moderates and progressives imperiled their agenda. An off-year electoral drubbing this week further raised the stakes for anxious Democrats eager to prove that their party could deliver while in control of both chambers of Congress and the White House. “Welcome to my world — this is the Democratic Party,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California told reporters at the Capitol as she announced the postponement of the social policy bill. “We are not a lock-step party.” “It’s an additional challenge,” she added. “But I see every challenge as an opportunity.” The most immediate question was whether the infrastructure legislation would have the votes to pass, as talks dragged into the evening. Liberal Democrats who have demanded that the two bills move in tandem indicated that they might oppose the infrastructure measure on its own. And while it was expected to draw some Republican support, it was not clear whether that would be enough to offset Democratic defections given the party’s slim margin of control. Asked whether she had the votes to pass the infrastructure bill, Ms. Pelosi told reporters, “We’ll see, won’t we?” The Congressional Progressive Caucus, whose members have refused to support the public works bill until they were certain the social policy bill was on track, huddled into the evening, ordering pizza delivered to the Capitol as they discussed whether to allow the infrastructure measure to proceed. In a private show of hands, at least 20 of them indicated they were ready to oppose the bill without a vote on the social safety net package. Mr. Biden, who spent much of Friday calling individual lawmakers in an effort to salvage his agenda, later called into the meeting, where he was placed on speakerphone to make a plea for passage of the infrastructure bill. The liberals were enraged after about a half-dozen moderates insisted that the social policy bill be delayed until they could obtain an official cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office, the legislative scorekeeper on Capitol Hill.
