Nancy Pelosi Looks at Advancing Infrastructure and Budget Framework Simultaneously

The Wall Street Journal

By Eliza Collins and Kristina Peterson

August 15, 2021

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) on Sunday asked a top committee to look at moving forward on a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill along with the $3.5 trillion budget framework in an effort to balance the demands of her party’s ideological factions.

The request came after nine centrist House members said Thursday they “will not consider voting for a budget resolution until” the House approves the infrastructure bill.

The threat complicated the timeline Mrs. Pelosi had previously set. She had said the infrastructure package wouldn’t move ahead until Senate passage of the $3.5 trillion antipoverty and healthcare legislation. Progressives have demanded that the two move on parallel tracks to guarantee their priorities.

“I have requested that the Rules Committee explore the possibility of a rule that advances both the budget resolution and the bipartisan infrastructure package. This will put us on a path to advance the infrastructure bill and the reconciliation bill,” Mrs. Pelosi said in a letter Sunday.

Passage of such a rule is expected to move the infrastructure bill forward procedurally, but not pass it, according to an aide to Mrs. Pelosi.

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