OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not done herself any favors as she has attempted to convince moderate Democrats to get on board with the Joe Biden infrastructure plan.
The moderate Democrats led by New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer and including Reps. Carolyn Bourdeaux, Ed Case, Jim Costa, Henry Cuellar, Jared Golden, Vicente Gonzalez, Gottheimer, Kurt Schrader, and Filemon Vela are against Pelosi’s plan to hold infrastructure hostage to secure the $3.5 trillion budget resolution, Breitbart News reported.
The Democrats want immediate consideration of the bipartisan bill so that the chamber can pass the bill and send it to the president’s desk to sign as soon as possible, rather than waiting until the fall for Democrats to potentially pass their $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill.
Now, Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL) has joined the ranks of the Democrat revolt against Pelosi.
“The Senate passed a popular, bipartisan infrastructure bill negotiated by the President. It’s now before the House, but being unnecessarily delayed. I’ll vote to start reconciliation, but only if we finish our work on infrastructure,” she said in a tweet.
The Senate passed a popular, bipartisan infrastructure bill negotiated by the President. It’s now before the House, but being unnecessarily delayed. I’ll vote to start reconciliation, but only if we finish our work on infrastructure.
Read my op-ed ⬇️https://t.co/YDyMSen38P
— U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy (@RepStephMurphy) August 23, 2021
“Those of us who call Central Florida home know — and the census just confirmed — that our region is growing rapidly. It makes me proud that so many people want to live here. But the dramatic population increase is outpacing efforts to expand and enhance our infrastructure. As anyone who has spent hours sitting in I-4 traffic can attest, we’ve become victims of our own success,” she said.
“That’s why we need to make a major federal investment in Central Florida’s — and our nation’s — infrastructure. In Congress, we’ve been talking about doing so for decades, to the point that it has become a punch line. Remarkably, we’re finally on the cusp of taking action to match the rhetoric,” she said.
The House convened on Monday, after coming back from its recess, to tackle the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, a budget resolution that will pave the way for the Democrats’ $3.5 trillion budget package, and a voting bill named for late Rep. John Lewis.
But a group of Democrats headed by New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer is insisting on passing the infrastructure bill first and threatening to vote no on the budget resolution if they do not get their way.
“I’ve heard from a lot of Democrats who are not part of the nine, who have said to me this is exactly right: There’s no reason why we when we have this historic once-in-a-century infrastructure package in front of us out of the Senate with a strong bipartisan vote, shouldn’t immediately bring it to the floor and vote on it as soon as possible,” he said to The Atlantic.
“The president himself tweeted the day it was passed, ‘Send it to my desk as soon as possible,’ and that’s for good reason. To put it at risk and to wait months for it to pass—and, frankly, risk that it may never become law at all—is something our country can’t afford, and we need to get the shovels in the ground now,” he said.
He said that he does want to move forward on the reconciliation bill but that differences in what members want need to be debated separately from the infrastructure bill.
“They have the votes to tank it, and they’re holding the president’s priority hostage, which I don’t understand,” he said of the progressive Democrats.
“Time kills deals. This is an old business saying and the essence of why we are pushing to get the bipartisan infrastructure bill through Congress and immediately to President Biden’s desk — as the president himself requested the day after it passed the Senate,” the group said in an op-ed for The Washington Post.
“We are firmly opposed to holding the president’s infrastructure legislation hostage to reconciliation, risking its passage and the bipartisan support behind it,” it said.
“Across this country, far too many communities are struggling with crumbling roads and structurally unsound bridges, outrageous congestion, lead-coated pipes, and no broadband access. You don’t hold up a major priority of the country, and millions of jobs, as some form of leverage. The infrastructure bill is not a political football,” they said.
