Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
- The House passed the infrastructure bill, delivering Biden a win after months of Democratic infighting.
- Their success was partly overshadowed by Democrats' failure to pass the social bill due to a centrist revolt.
- House Democrats aim to approve the social legislation and send it to the Senate before Thanksgiving.
The House approved President Joe Biden's $550 billion infrastructure bill on Friday after months of Democratic infighting, clinching a major achievement for the president on a key part of his economic agenda. Over a dozen Republican lawmakers also lent crucial votes to pass the bill.
Yet the Democrats' success was partly overshadowed by a dramatic showdown within the party over the larger $1.75 trillion social spending bill. A small group of centrists refused to support the social and climate legislation without an economic analysis from the Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan scorekeeper. Democrats moved to approve a procedural motion advancing the social plan instead.
The infrastructure vote was 228-206 with 13 Republican lawmakers joining the majority House Democrats. Yet six progressives opposed passing the infrastructure bill since it would sever the link with the social plan. These lawmakers included Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Jamaal Bowman of New York, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Cori Bush of Missouri.
Democrats were poised to approve a procedural rule for the social plan shortly after. They're aiming to pass and send it to the Senate sometime during the week of November 15.
The centrist revolt prompted a lot of frustration among Democrats who wanted to swiftly secure passage of both measures. Pelosi has pulled two major votes in the past three months after progressives withheld support from the infrastructure package without the social bill, arguing both had to pass alongside each other. Now centrists have prevented exactly that, for the time being.
The California Democrat can only lose three votes, affording her very little room to maneuver between the party's feuding wings.
Progressives dropped their resistance to passing the infrastructure bill this week in the wake of the party's electoral beating in Virginia. Then, the small group of so-called Blue Dog centrists such as Rep. Stephanie Murphy of Florida suddenly objected to passing the social spending plan without a CBO score assessing that it was fully paid for.
"Everyone's exhausted and everyone's frustrated," one House Democratic aide granted anonymity to speak candidly told Insider.
"Well, the whole day was a clusterfuck, right?" Rep. Mark Pocan of Wisconsin told reporters. "But beyond that … I thought everyone was working in a very congenial way. I mean, rank and file members figured out how to get shit done."
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