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Democratic leaders race to resolve demands from moderates as they push for votes on social safety net and infrastructure bills
2021-11-05 00:00:00.0     美国有线电视-国会     原网页

       (CNN)House Democratic leadership is scrambling to try to address concerns from a group of moderate Democrats that threaten to once again delay the timeline for votes on President Joe Biden's sweeping social safety net plan and a separate infrastructure bill, the latest sign of the obstacles facing the party as it pushes to enact its agenda.

       Democratic leaders want to pass both measures out of the House by Friday, but a group of moderates say they first want a full analysis by the Congressional Budget Office of the roughly $1.9 trillion social safety net expansion plan.

       If leadership can't find a way to resolve the issue within the next few hours, they could be forced to again push back the votes in what would be an embarrassing setback for Democrats. The party has already had to punt on voting on the infrastructure bill twice in two months due to a separate set of demands from progressives. Biden has gotten personally involved as well, visiting the Hill twice to rally Democrats and working the phones with moderates this week. That has still not broken the logjam, however.

       President Joe Biden on Friday called on the House to pass both bills "right now."

       "I'm asking every House member, member of the House of Representatives to vote yes on both these bills right now," he said. "Send the infrastructure bill to my desk, send the Build Back Better bill to the Senate."

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       Among the moderates telling House Democratic leadership they will not vote for the Build Back Better Act until there is a CBO score are Reps. Jared Golden of Maine, Ed Case of Hawaii, Stephanie Murphy of Florida, Kurt Schrader of Oregon, Abigail Spanberger of Virginia and Carolyn Bourdeaux of Georgia.

       Many of these members have been seen going in and out of Pelosi's office Friday. Until progress is made with these members, Pelosi does not have the votes to put the social safety net plan known as Build Back Better on the floor because she can only lose three votes and still pass the bill.

       If these lawmakers continue to hold out on voting for Build Back Better until there is a CBO score, the vote will likely not be able to pass today because the score will not be ready in time.

       Leaving Pelosi's office, Golden told CNN he's a no "without a CBO score."

       Five moderates, including Golden, signed onto a letter this week calling for a score from the Congressional Budget Office, before floor consideration of the Build Back Better Act.

       Biden turns the screws on Democrats with a call for the House to pass his economic agenda 'right now'

       CBO scores of legislation provide an estimate of the effects the policies could have on revenue and spending. Moderates, many of whom have expressed concerns over the overall cost of the bill, argue it is important to have that information and a full picture of the potential impact of the sweeping social safety net plan before holding a vote.

       But it could take some time to prepare such a cost estimate. In the meantime, Democratic leadership is relying on a White House analysis saying the bill is fully paid for, based in part on the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation.

       House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Democrat from Maryland, was confident that there would not be a CBO score on Friday. "It could not be done today," he told reporters.

       House Budget Chairman John Yarmuth, a Democrat from Kentucky, told CNN he expected a CBO score to take about 10-14 days, and wouldn't be done until the week before Thanksgiving. Some think it could slip until the week of Thanksgiving, though preliminary estimates could be done earlier.

       Democratic Rep. Ron Kind of Wisconsin, leaving Pelosi's office, said the issue among the moderates is whether they're prepared to vote for the bill, saying it's "more of a scoring issue right now." Kind told CNN Pelosi is trying to make sure "people are in a comfortable spot."

       Kind says he plans to vote for it.

       Schrader, who signed onto the letter calling for a CBO score, left Pelosi's office and told CNN "we have no resolution that I know" when asked if he is ready to vote on Build Back Better.

       Schrader would not confirm that a CBO score is what he needs to get to a yes but said "we're very close. Everyone wants to get the job done. And just have a different view of how to get it done."

       Schrader said reporters had to ask Pelosi about how quickly a CBO score could get done.

       Some obstacles resolved

       The eleventh-hour holdup comes as Democratic leaders have been working around the clock to resolve other key sticking points and have made progress on other agenda items.

       Democratic sources say that negotiations over immigration provisions have been resolved — and the last remaining hurdle to passing a bill is the demand by five moderates that they get a CBO score before a vote.

       In a sign that a deal is getting closer, House Democrats have also resolved another sticking point: How to deal with state and local tax deductions, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. Democrats from the Northeast and West Coast have been pushing to loosen the caps imposed by the 2017 tax law.

       Under the new SALT deal, deductions would be capped at $80,000 per year over a nine-year time span, according to Rep. Tom Malinowski, who helped cut the deal.

       Before this week, demands from progressives had taken center stage in the push to pass the bills in the House. Progressives have demanded that both the social safety net plan and the infrastructure bill move in tandem.

       Progressive Democrat, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, criticized moderate Democrats for withholding their votes on Build Back Better until there is a CBO score. Ocasio-Cortez told reporters that moderates withholding their votes now is different than how progressives were withholding their votes throughout this process.

       "I feel like there's a difference between progressives holding out and us going back to our communities and say we're doing this for childcare, immigration, universal pre-K, health care extension," she said. "And I think it's a lot harder to go back to a person's community and say, 'Hey, I'm doing this for a CBO score.'"

       This story has been updated with additional developments Friday.

       


标签:综合
关键词: score     moderates     House Democratic leadership     progressives     votes     Schrader     moderate Democrats    
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