Jayapal: Bipartisan Bill Won’t Pass Without Reconciliation Bill, Americans Don’t Win ‘If We Simply Invest in Roads and Bridges’ without Climate

On Wednesday’s “CNN Newsroom,” Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) declared that “there are not going to be the votes in the House for a bipartisan bill without the reconciliation bill at 3.5 trillion.” And Americans “are not going to get a win if we simply invest in roads and bridges,” but don’t act on climate.

Jayapal said, “We said three months ago at the Congressional Progressive Caucus that we would not move a bipartisan infrastructure bill without the 3.5 trillion reconciliation package that has all of the important issues that we have put forward from the care economy, getting women back to work, addressing health care, immigration, housing — a critical issue across the country — and, of course, climate change. So, we are waiting to see what the bipartisan bill has. But nothing has changed in terms of, for us, there are not going to be the votes in the House for a bipartisan bill without the reconciliation bill at 3.5 trillion. Because that’s what we need in order to deliver on these promises. So, let’s — I’m looking forward to seeing what they came up with, but the two have to move together.”

She added, “[T]he American people are not going to get a win if we simply invest in roads and bridges, but don’t take on climate change, if we simply say we’re going to create good jobs, but we don’t allow women to get back into the workforce, if we don’t do anything about health care at a time when the pandemic cases are rising again. So, yes, we want a win, desperately. There is an urgency to people across this country who are struggling to make it. And the bipartisan bill is fine. It’s a small piece of everything that we have to get done. But we’ve been clear from the beginning, we believe this should have been one big bill.”

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