Moderate House Democrats Imperil $3.5 Trillion Trojan Horse Bill in Letter to Nancy Pelosi

Moderate House Democrats told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in a letter Thursday they plan to torpedo the $3.5 trillion Trojan horse bill unless the “infrastructure” bill and the Jobs Act “passes the House and is signed into law.”

“We will not consider voting for a budget resolution until the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passes the House and is signed into law,” Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Carolyn Bourdeaux (D-GA), Filemon Vela (D-TX), Jared Golden (D-ME), Henry Cuellar (D-TX), Vincente Gonzalez (D-TX), Ed Case (D-HI), Jim Costa (D-CA), and Kurt Schrader (D-OR) wrote.

“Some have suggested that we hold off on considering the Senate infrastructure bill for months – until the reconciliation process is completed,” the members wrote. “We disagree.”

The letter continues:

Earlier this week, the Senate passed an historic bipartisan infrastructure package, with a supermajority of sixty-nine votes. President Biden swiftly applauded its passage, stating that he hopes Congress will send it to his desk as soon as possible. The House of Representatives should heed his call and immediately pass the legislation. We urge our House colleagues to follow the same path as the Senate: vote first on the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and then consider the budget resolution.

The Democrats’ stance against Pelosi’s two-track scheme of passing the reconciliation package and the infrastructure bill together appears to be predicated on passing one measure with some Republican support in the 50/50 split Senate, 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.

Two House Democrats have previously urged Pelosi 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 Gottheimer and Golden (D-ME) stated.

In more bad news for Pelosi, Punchbowl News reported the “speaker and her leadership team also face heavy pressure” from the far-left, “a much larger faction in the Democratic Caucus — to delay a vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill until the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package is complete.”

Among the far-left is Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Punchbowl suspects Jayapal and her colleagues “are concerned that moderates won’t support the reconciliation package if the infrastructure bill is allowed to pass on its own. They want linkage between the two measures in order to ensure that moderates support both.”

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø.