Congress moved Thursday to avert a government shutdown, as top Democrats dashed to solidify internal support for the twin planks of President Biden’s agenda.
The Senate voted 65-35 to approve a last-minute bill to keep the federal government open until Dec. 3, 2021. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the House would pass the stop-gap measure, too — in a bipartisan fashion, she hoped — and send it to the White House.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had promised the legislation would pass on Thursday morning, after a back-and-forth between the parties on some of its provisions, and after days of growing drama generated by the specter of a third government shutdown in four years.
The apparently all-but-complete resolution to the shutdown drama left a bundle of bedeviling bills still unresolved for Democrats, who are trying to push through an ambitious $3.5 trillion social spending bill and a $1 trillion infrastructure bill, which was due for a vote in the House on Thursday.
“It’s going to be an eventful day,” Pelosi told reporters on Thursday morning.
The infrastructure legislation, which passed resoundingly in the Senate last month, has hit snags this week in the House. A critical component of the president’s so-called “Build Back Better Plan,” the legislation carries investments in roads, public transportation and the electrical grid.
Progressive in the House have signaled they won’t vote for the legislation until the path is cleared for the $3.5 trillion budget blueprint — which carries sweeping climate provisions and enhancements to the social safety net.
The larger bill faces a steep path in the evenly split Senate, where a pair of centrist Democrats are opposed to its size and scope. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) said Thursday that his “top line” for the budget plan is just $1.5 trillion, and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) has also expressed reservations about the $3.5 trillion package.
Pelosi delayed the vote on the infrastructure package from Monday, bowing to progressive resistance. It didn’t appear Pelosi had made significant progress in the intervening days; liberals continued to signal they would sink the bill.
“To live up to the promises we ran on, we need to fully pass President Biden’s agenda,” Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y. ), a progressive, tweeted on Wednesday. “To fully pass President Biden’s agenda, we need to pass reconciliation alongside infrastructure.”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) directed members of his party to vote against the infrastructure bill, and indicated that there would not be 40 or more Republicans defecting. The Democrats have an eight-seat advantage in the chamber, giving them little margin to lose progressive votes without significant GOP defections.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chairwoman of the Progressive Caucus, estimated on Sunday night that around 60 members of her caucus were ready to vote against the bill. On Thursday, she reaffirmed her resistance, saying: “We will not be able to vote for the infrastructure bill until the reconciliation bill has passed. So we’re in the same place.”
“We’re going to stay here all weekend if we need to — to see if we can get to a deal,” she added.
And all the while, Democrats and Republicans remained in a stalemate over lifting the debt ceiling, a once procedural custom on Capitol Hill that has fallen victim to political maneuvering. Republicans said they wouldn’t support raising the borrowing cap.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., joined by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., updates reporters at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. (J. Scott Applewhite/)
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Congress on Tuesday that there could be “catastrophic” consequences if the debt limit isn’t dealt with by Oct. 18. The borrowing cap presently sits at $28.4 trillion; the U.S. hasn’t defaulted on its debt in modern times.
Still, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) described a “glimmer of hope” as he hailed the clearing of the shutdown obstacle. A shutdown could have left three in five workers in the federal government’s 2-million strong civilian workforce out of work, and perhaps delayed efforts to approve a coronavirus vaccination for youngsters under 12.
The measure to avoid the shutdown also promised funding to support evacuees from Afghanistan and aid for victims of Hurricane Ida.
“This is one of the larger problems that has faced us in the last while,” Schumer said of the shutdown risk.
