Huffman and allied Democrats take stand that could cancel $1 trillion infrastructure bill

September 29, 2021

A progressive group of Democrats in Congress, including North Coast Rep. Jared Huffman, is ready to vote down the Senate’s $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill if it comes to a floor vote Thursday.

The standoff between Democrats over an economic initiative that could define President Joe Biden’s first term is one of several overlapping legislative battles dominating discussions on Capitol Hill and at the White House this week. The other is the race to avert a government shutdown —as key agencies and programs are set to shutter Friday without a temporary funding measure.

Speaking Wednesday about the $1 trillion infrastructure bill, Huffman, D-San Rafael, one of 96 members in the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said it would be “really counterproductive to hold that vote” on the Thursday deadline set by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco.

With 50 or more members, mostly from the progressive caucus, poised to vote against the bill as a standalone measure, Huffman said that “puts you deep in a hole” when Democrats have a mere four-member House majority.

“I don’t have any doubt” it would fail, he said, calling the prospect of a Thursday vote “a strategic mistake.”

Democrats generally support the infrastructure bill, which includes major new investments in the country's aging roads, bridges, pipes, ports and internet connections. But the proposal has become a critical political bargaining chip for liberal-leaning lawmakers, who have threatened to scuttle it to preserve the breadth of a second, approximately $3.5 trillion economic package — one that moderates, including Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Arizona, and Joe Manchin III, D-West Virginia, want to scale back.

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, Sonoma County’s senior member of Congress, said Wednesday that House and Senate leaders and President Biden are “trying to put a reasonable and responsible plan forward” to pass both bills.

“Some of my colleagues are insistent that we do them both together,” he said, noting that progressives are “pretty adamant” about approval of the pending $3.5 trillion Build Back Better Act.

“I think it’s important to note that things are pretty fluid now,” Thompson said, adding that he sees “flexibility” in the voting deadline.

Thompson, a 22-year House veteran, is a close associate of Pelosi and a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, a centrist group of representatives.

Since June, the Progressive Caucus has insisted that the bipartisan infrastructure bill — approved by Senate on a 69-30 vote in August — must be considered in the House along with the Build Back Better Act, a 10-year spending plan considered the centerpiece of Biden’s domestic agenda.

“The two are integrally tied together,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Washington, said in September, describing the act’s provisions, with investments child care, affordable housing, education and climate action, “what we all promised voters” in the 2020 election.

“Some people are making this more difficult than it needs to be,” said Thompson, adding that he was not pinning it on the progressives and noting that some Republicans have dropped their support for the infrastructure bill.

“I’m not singling out anybody,” he said. “We need to get both things done.”

Huffman said that Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had initially agreed that both infrastructure bills would move together, but a “rump group” of Blue Dogs recently moved to “decouple” the pair and vote first on the Senate bill.

Thompson was not part the group and opposed the strategy, an aide said.

Both lawmakers faulted the Senate infrastructure bill for lacking adequate investment in climate-related programs. Thompson said the bill includes millions of dollars for broadband expansion, wildfire prevention and expansion of electric vehicle charging stations in California, but “is not the bill we wrote in the House and it’s not the bill I would have written.”

“It’s a lousy bill,” Huffman said.

If the House passes it, the Senate bill becomes law, which Huffman said would undermine the progressives’ position in negotiations with Senate leaders and Manchin and Sinema over provisions in the Build Back Better Act, also known as the human infrastructure bill.

Manchin and Sinema, who are uncomfortable with the measure’s $3.5 trillion cost, are considered key votes Democrats need to pass legislation in the Senate, split 50-50 along party lines.

The act includes social safety net programs and a clean electricity program with incentives and penalties aimed at getting utilities to phase out fossil fuels, Huffman said.

The way the two bills are handled is “primarily a difference over tactics,” he said. “At a moment like this, tactics are important.”

The Washington Post contributed to this story. You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 707-521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @guykovner.


By:  Guy Kovner
Source: The Press Democrat