Democrats struggle to advance Biden’s agenda amid tense negotiations – live | US news

Senator Bernie Sanders said that he hopes the House fails to pass the infrastructure bill if speaker Nancy Pelosi moves forward with plans to hold a vote on the proposal tomorrow.

Sanders told Business Insider, “It’s terribly important before the House votes we have a strong reconciliation package that not only addresses the needs of working families but also the existential climate threat.”

Sanders has already said that he supports House progressives who are threatening to oppose the infrastructure bill unless the reconciliation package advances at the same time.

“If the bipartisan infrastructure bill is passed on its own on Thursday, this will be in violation of an agreement that was reached within the Democratic Caucus in Congress,” Sanders said yesterday.

“I strongly urge my House colleagues to vote against the bipartisan infrastructure bill until Congress passes a strong reconciliation bill.”

House speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke to reporters after the Democratic caucus meeting this morning to discuss the path forward for the infrastructure bill and the reconciliation package.

Pelosi said she hopes to have an agreement on “legislative language” for the reconciliation package by tomorrow, which could allow progressives to support the infrastructure bill.

As of now, House progressives are threatening to oppose the infrastructure bill until the reconciliation package advances as well.

If Pelosi could get a deal on legislative language for the reconciliation package, progressives’ stance may change, but that will be very difficult to accomplish in such a short period of time.

Stay tuned.

Senate Republicans are pushing back against majority leader Chuck Schumer’s claim that there is not enough time to address the debt ceiling via reconciliation.

“Of course there’s enough time to do it in reconciliation,” Mitt Romney said, per HuffPost. “It’s a process you can make more speedy by agreement. But even without speeding it up, it’s a couple of weeks process, and it’s not until the 18th of October.”

Treasury secretary Janet Yellen said in a letter yesterday that the debt ceiling must be raised or suspended by October 18 to avoid a default.

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said he would not use reconciliation to suspend the debt ceiling, increasing the risk of a potential default, which would be catastrophic for the US economy.

In a floor speech moments ago, the Democratic leader attacked his Republican colleagues for opposing a debt ceiling hike.

“Never has there been a default caused by pure stupidity — in this case, Republican stupidity,” Schumer said.

If Republicans remain opposed to a debt ceiling increase, the only way to overcome a Senate filibuster would be for Democrats to address the matter via reconciliation, which would not require any Republican support.

However, Schumer said reconciliation was too risky of a strategy to pursue because there was limited time to address the debt ceiling, and a single senator could delay the process long enough to cause a default.

“As default gets closer and closer to becoming a reality, our Republican colleagues will be forced to ask themselves how long they are going to keep playing political games while the economic stability of our country is at risk,” Schumer said.

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer has just said that the upper chamber may take action “as early as today” to fund the government and avoid a shutdown.

In a floor speech, Schumer said that Senate Democrats will soon introduce a continuing resolution to keep the government open “until early December”.

Senate Democrats will need 10 of their Republican colleagues to support the funding bill if there is a filibuster of the proposal.

Assuming the Senate can get the bill passed, it will then go to the House, which will have to pass the legislation before tomorrow night to avoid a shutdown.

White House adviser Cedric Richmond is attending the House Democratic caucus meeting this morning, per CNN.

The House Democratic caucus meeting is expected to focus on how members can simultaneously advance Joe Biden’s legislative agenda, avoid a government shutdown and suspend the debt ceiling.

Richmond previously served in the House as a member of the Louisiana delegation, but he left Congress earlier this year to serve in the Biden administration.

And as Democrats try to advance the infrastructure bill and the reconciliation package, they are also trying to avoid a government shutdown.

As of now, government funding is expected to run out tomorrow night, meaning a shutdown could go into effect on Friday.

Democrats had been attempting to simultaneously extend government funding and suspend the debt ceiling, but Republicans remain firmly opposed to helping on the debt ceiling matter.

So Democrats may now put forward a bill to only fund the government in the hopes that enough Senate Republicans will support the proposal to get it passed.

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said yesterday, “I think very soon we will put down a bill to deal with the shutdown and move forward.”

But if Democrats do pursue that strategy, they will still have to deal with the much larger problem of a potential default, and they will only have a few weeks to avoid it.

Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.

There will be more tense negotiations on Capitol Hill today, as Democrats attempt to pass both the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the reconciliation package.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi had said the chamber would vote on the infrastructure bill tomorrow, but progressives are threatening to oppose the legislation unless the reconciliation package advances at the same time.

The Congressional Progressive Caucus chair issued a statement yesterday saying, “Progressives will vote for both bills, but a majority of our members will only vote for the infrastructure bill after the President’s visionary Build Back Better Act passes.”

But House moderates have demanded a vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, and some of them have threatened to oppose the reconciliation package if the vote does not happen.

So Pelosi must bring together the two sides of her caucus. And if she doesn’t, it’s possible that both bills will fail.

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.