House Democrats break internal impasse to adopt $3.5T budget plan

The Hill
 
House Democrats [Last Tuesday] rallied behind a new strategy to advance President Biden’s economic agenda shortly after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) struck a deal with a small group of moderates that was threatening to blow up leadership’s carefully laid plans to pass trillions of dollars in federal spending.
 
The House voted 220-212, strictly along party lines, to adopt a rule that allows Democrats to immediately begin work on a massive $3.5 trillion social benefits package. The rule also requires the lower chamber to take up the Senate-passed bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill by Sept. 27.
 
In addition, the rule clears the way for the House to vote later Tuesday on legislation that would restore the portion of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that required localities with histories of voter suppression to get federal clearance before making changes to election laws.
 
The deal Pelosi reached Tuesday provides a brief detente between Democratic moderates and progressives as House lawmakers leave Washington to resume their summer recess.
 
But the internecine sniping over process, strategy and timing foreshadows just how difficult it will be for the party to stay united when it comes to turning its policy goals into law in the coming weeks as it seeks to show voters that they can govern…
  
Pelosi added in a statement that she is “committing” to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill by Sept. 27, shortly before current surface transportation programs expire…

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