House Democrats are pressuring House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to hold an immediate vote on the Senate infrastructure bill, untying the bill from the trojan horse reconciliation package amid fears of exacerbating inflation and the national debt.
“After years of waiting, the country cannot afford unnecessary delays to finally deliver on a physical infrastructure package,” the letter shared by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Jared Golden (D-ME) said.
“Separately, as we begin the reconciliation process, we have concerns about the specific components of that potential package,” it continues. “These specifics are crucial, particularly given the combined threat of rising inflation, national debt, and the trillions recently, and appropriately, allocated to the COVID-19 emergency.”
“As soon as the Senate completes its work, we must bring this bipartisan infrastructure bill to the House floor for a standalone vote. This once-in-a-century investment deserves its own consideration, without regard to other legislation,” the letter adds. “We stand ready to enact bipartisan infrastructure legislation, and we hope to have your support in delivering this standalone bipartisan victory for the American people.”
House Democrats are urging Pelosi to hold the vote because she has said she would only hold the vote once the two bills were both passed in the Senate and ready for passage in the House, thereby holding the “bipartisan” infrastructure deal hostage to the trojan horse reconciliation bill. The Senate has yet to pass either.
The two-track system that Pelosi is protecting is the Democrats dual initiatives of passing a measure with some Republican support, while also appeasing the Democrat base by ramming through the trojan horse bill full of far-left measures, including expanding Medicare, amnesty, global warming initiatives, subsidized racial equity, and environmental justice initiatives.
The White House’s Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg, has said the infrastructure bill should pass “on its merits.”
“These are two separate packages but they’re definitely both part of the president’s vision. But at risk of sounding simplistic, I would encourage legislators to vote for policies that they think are good and vote against the policies they disagree with,” Buttigieg explained. “There is a path to do that for the Republicans for example who are with us on the infrastructure bill, not so sure about the other piece. And of course the timeline will continue to develop but my hope is that this will be voted on on its merits.”