Democrats prepare for intra-party struggles to draw up multi-trillion-dollar package to move forward President Biden
Joe Biden: Supreme Court blocks Biden eviction moratorium Night defense and national security: terror in Kabul as explosions kill and kill hundreds of White House: Biden “somber” and “outraged” after learning of Kabul attack MONTHagenda.
This week the House has adopted a $ 3.5 trillion budget plan that paves the way for lawmakers to pass the next piece of legislation without Republican votes. But the approval of the budget measure came after Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Pelosi: Night Defense and National Security: Terror in Kabul as explosions kill and hurt hundreds of U.S. flags to drop to half staff to honor dead troops. (D-California) was pressured to reach an agreement with a group of moderate Democrats who threatened to derail the party’s spending plans.
Democrats now look forward to new challenges in reaching consensus on their caucus as they draft and try to advance the spending bill. Democratic leaders in Congress and members of the top committee will have to balance the priorities of moderates and progressives, as well as members of the House and senators, as almost all Democrats will have to vote on the bill for it to pass. .
“Such a close margin, the four people who feel strong enough right now can upset the cart,” the receiver said. Lloyd Doggett
Lloyd Alton DoggettGOP leans toward racial issues ahead of Democratic semesters under new pressure to break stagnation of voting rights Biden launches Trump’s “big lie” in directing voting rights MORE (D-Texas), a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee, told reporters Tuesday. “It’s about the fact that no one really gets it.”
The House is expected to take action on the Senate spending bill, and Democratic leaders have set an ambitious timetable. Its aim is for each committee of the House with jurisdiction over the package to advance its share of the measure on 15 September.
The final legislation is expected to touch on a wide range of issues, including paid family leave, education, health care and the climate. The cost of the new spending is expected to be offset at least in part by the tax increase for Americans and high-income businesses.
“The coming weeks will be intense, but … we will achieve our goals, working with the Senate to ensure the passage of our historic legislation,” Pelosi wrote Wednesday in a letter to colleagues.
The relevant committees of the House have already begun to put the legislation together, holding discussions with their Senate counterparts in the process, and it is likely that they will continue this work in the coming days.
The House has no plans to vote again until Sept. 20, but committee action on the spending package is expected to be done sooner, both in person and virtually.
As lawmakers write the bill, they will have to deal with some issues where democratic divisions have emerged. One of these problems is the size of the bill.
The budget plan allows Democrats to include up to $ 3.5 trillion in spending and tax cuts, a limit number that emerged as a result of an agreement in the Senate. But some moderate, most notably Sens. Joe Manchin
Joe ManchinOn The Money: Unemployment Claims Approach Ahead of Labor Day Benefit Cliff Night Energy: The Democrats’ spending proposal would increase the cash for conservation through fossil rates. (DW.Va.) i Cinema Kyrsten
Kyrsten SinemaOn The Money: Unemployment Claims Occur Before Sanders Labor Day Benefit Cliff Does Not Discard Trips to Manchin, Sinema’s hometowns are engaged in spending Pelosi’s paintings with centrists in infrastructure as a “clarification” MORE (D-Ariz.), They have had problems with this price. Some progressive lawmakers initially sought legislation ranging from $ 4 trillion to $ 6 trillion.
“I would love to see more spending, but that’s the number the Senate agreed to,” said the chairman of the House Budget Committee. John Yarmuth
John Allen Yarmuth: The Hill’s Morning Report, presented by Facebook, Biden meets its deadline Afghanistan Overnight Energy: Interior moves ahead with hole lease sales after judge stops break On The Money: House Democrats Break the ‘internal impasse to adopt the budget plan .5T MORE (D-Ky.), Who is also a member of the Progressive Caucus of Congress. “Hopefully we can do what they agreed.”
Another key challenge will be determining how much to pay for the new expense and how to increase the revenue needed to offset those costs. Biden has come up with several ways to raise taxes on wealthy people and businesses, but some of those ideas sparked a surge in some Democratic lawmakers, particularly his call for raising the corporate tax rate. 21% to 28% and their proposals to increase capital gains. taxes.
“I would like to have it fully paid. We’ll see what’s possible, ”Pelosi said during a press conference Wednesday.
Howard Gleckman, a senior member of the Urban-Brookings Fiscal Policy Center, said it would be “quite remarkable” if Democrats could reach an agreement to raise $ 1 trillion in revenue, an amount that is less than a third of the your target spending.
“Just ask Democrats to vote for a really big tax increase. And that’s very hard to do,” he said.
Democratic leaders will also have to address the desire of some lawmakers for their specific priorities to be included in the massive bill. Many lawmakers consider the spending package to be the best way to achieve their long-standing economic policy goals.
For example, many Democratic lawmakers in high-tax states such as New York, New Jersey, and California have insisted that the bill repeal a limit on the state and local tax deduction imposed by the GOP’s tax reform law on 2017. Raising the cap, however, would reduce federal revenue and could greatly benefit high-income households, depending on how it is designed.
Chairman of the Roads and Means Committee Richard Neal
Richard Edmund NealPelosi sets risky House vote to estimate approved .5T budget On money: White House rules out extension of unemployment benefits for pandemics | Treasury: Few small business owners will see tax hikes Yellen and Walsh rule out pandemic work aid extension MORE (D-Mass.) He said his group is discussing the issue “quite assertively.”
Other potential challenges belong to the arcane budget rules of the Senate. Part of these rules requires that all provisions of a conciliation bill have an impact on the federal budget and that this impact not be “merely incidental” to the non-budget parts of the provision. This rule could prevent Democrats from including some priorities in the bill, including immigration-related provisions and a clean energy standard.
As part of Pelosi’s agreement with the moderates on the budget resolution, the president said the House would only introduce a spending bill that could be passed by the Senate. Pelosi said Wednesday that the House would work with the Senate as it is drafting legislation to help make that happen.
“We are writing a bill with the Senate because it is useless to make a bill that will not be passed by the Senate,” Pelosi said.
Rep. Stephanie Murphy
Stephanie MurphyHouse Democrats break internal deadlock to adopt .5T Pelosi budget plan, moderates a little closer to infrastructure, a budget deal. (D-Fla.), One of ten moderates who threatened to vote against the budget resolution earlier this week, told reporters that Pelosi’s commitment to coordinating with the Senate is “very important because “I’m not here to pass the courier bills. I’m here to pass bills that will actually become law and help the American people.”
The only democratic spending bill will not be the only item on the legislators ’agenda next month. Pelosi has promised moderates that the House will vote on the $ 1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill passed by the Senate on Sept. 27, though progressives insist Congress should first pass the spending bill first. democratic.
Lawmakers will also have to approve a government spending bill before Sept. 30 to avoid a federal shutdown on Oct. 1, and may need to take steps to raise the debt limit as well.
Gleckman said negotiations between Pelosi and the group of moderates this week foreshadowed the number of contracts that will be required in the coming weeks for the budget reconciliation package.
“What you saw this week was kind of a microcosm of what Nancy Pelosi has to do,” he said.