Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) reportedly opposes Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) push to pass the $2.1 trillion “bipartisan” infrastructure bill Thursday.
“Hell no,” Tlaib reportedly said while exiting the meeting room.
Tlaib is not the only “squad” member reportedly opposed to passing the infrastructure bill that has been held up in the House as leverage. Far-left Democrats want to force Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) to include radical provisions in the reconciliation framework President Biden presented.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), the leader of the Progressive Caucus, said Thursday she wants to see the legislative text before consenting to Pelosi’s goal of passing the infrastructure bill. “The first step is we’ve gotta see the legislation,” she said before revealing “there are too many ‘no’ votes for the BIF [bipartisan infrastructure bull] to pass” on Thursday.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) also oppose the deal Biden and Pelosi are attempting to broker. Sanders told reporters the reconciliation framework is not acceptable as is.
It “needs to be improved,” he claimed. “There is, to the best of my knowledge, no language in there that takes on the pharmaceutical industry” to subsidize proscription drug prices, and “that’s a major problem,” he added.
Warren tweeted her support for the the far-left’s opposition, “I support @RepJayapal and House Progressives—both infrastructure and #BuildBackBetter move together.”
Meanwhile, in a likely attempt to help improve Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s (D-AZ) negotiating position, the Arizona senator indicated Thursday she may approve of Biden’s rebranded $1.85 trillion reconciliation framework. Sinema said in a statement:
After months of productive, good-faith negotiations with President Biden and the White House, we have made significant progress on the proposed budget reconciliation package. I look forward to getting this done, expanding economic opportunities and helping everyday families get ahead.
But Sinema’s statement seems not to be trusted by the far-left, who have denied passage of the infrastructure bill for months. “Sinema and Manchin have proven that they can’t be trusted,” Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA), a member of the Progressive Caucus told the Hill.
“Manchin and Sinema keep raising different issues late in the game, which they could have done a while back,” Gomez continued. “It erodes people’s trust that they’re actually serious about getting anything done.”
It is unclear if Pelosi will bring the infrastructure bill up for a vote on the House floor. Pelosi is known to cancel votes she believes unlikely to pass.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø