Thank goodness for Nancy Pelosi.
This week, Madame Speaker somehow hulked a slate of Democratic legislative priorities through the House of Representatives, staving off a half-masted mutiny from moderate members of her own party. And suddenly, it seems like several progressive wish list items are closer than they’ve been in recent memory to becoming reality.
At issue this week was a budget reconciliation bill and President Biden’s Infrastructure Plan. The Infrastructure Plan includes funds to repair and update “traditional” infrastructure projects—things that crews of workers in hard hats get paid to do, like fixing roads and bridges and improving broadband. That plan had already passed the Senate, with some Republican support.
The budget resolution that House Democrats are advancing includes up to $3.5 trillion to reinforce the social safety net and address “soft” infrastructure priorities, like establishing a federal paid family leave program, addressing climate concerns, and making childcare more affordable, all of which are just as -if not more- important for enabling people to get to work as tunnels and trains.
Pelosi and progressive Democrats had insisted that they would not pass the Senate’s infrastructure bill unless the Senate advanced the House’s budget resolution. But a group of nine moderate Democrats threatened to blow all that up by insisting the House vote on the infrastructure bill first, or they would kill the budget resolution. (No Labels pretty much called them heroes!)
In the end, the moderates were out-maneuvered by Pelosi, who got her caucus in line and advanced the resolution in exchange for a pinky-promise that she would get the infrastructure bill passed by Sept. 27. Progressives in the House like Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington spoke optimistically about writing a budget bill that includes top progressive priorities in the coming weeks, and the Democrats who threatened to blow up the entire delicate negotiation process now look a lot like people who fucked around, and found out.
None of this would have been possible and this legislative moonshot wouldn’t be in reach if Nancy Pelosi hadn’t committed one of the most impressive legislative feats in recent memory, at 80 years old and in a news week dominated by high-profile foreign policy blunders and finger-pointing.”
