US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has set yet another new deadline for the House of Representatives to vote on Joe Biden's sweeping "Build Back Better" agenda, now saying that the two bills will be brought to the floor on Halloween, October 31st.
In a letter to her Democratic colleagues, Pelosi uses the line "It's about time!" as a refrain six times, calling on fellow lawmakers to finally take action on the two sweeping bills.
"It's about time! There is an October 31st Surface Transportation Authorisation deadline, after last night's passage of a critical 30-day extension. We must pass BIF well before then – the sooner the better, to get the jobs out there", Pelosi wrote.
The letter pointed at how the deadlines have already been extended several times, with Pelosi arguing that "more time" is needed - even though she personally promised to finally bring the infrastructure bill and the reconciliation package to the floor for a vote.
Pelosi also noted how the vote is important for other initiatives to move forward.
"We all take great pride in the Rescue Package, which is a giant step in meeting the needs of the American people, putting hundreds of millions of vaccines of arms, money in people's pockets, workers back in jobs and children safely back in school", Pelosi said. "There is an expiration date to some of the initiatives, so we need to extend them – for example, the Child Tax Credit, which took millions of children out of poverty, but which needs to be extended".
However, the Democratic rush to push Biden's spending bills through has been undermined by party members themselves. They continue to squabble over how exactly they want to implement their president's agenda and whether his bills are too expensive for the US government to handle - especially in light of other urgent issues like raising the debt ceiling.
While it is the GOP resistance that stands in the way of addressing the latter, the passage of a $1 trillion infrastructure bill and an even larger $3.5 reconciliation proposal has prompted squabbles between moderate and progressive Dems. The latter call for the reconciliation proposal to be greenlighted before the smaller infrastructure bill is passed, but moderate Democrats voiced concerns that the reconciliation bill, which includes funds for climate action and social welfare, is maybe going too far with the spending.
In her letter, however, Pelosi echoes Biden's assertions that "Build Back Better" costs zero dollars, since it "is paid for". She also reiterated that she would not trigger a vote on something that does not have enough support to be passed - a statement she made earlier when explaining why the House had still not voted.
Apparently, this is not something that moderate Democrats - let alone Republicans - are ready to back. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), one of the most vocal opponents of the large spending plans, said that he would not support a bill north of $1.5 trillion. He was also supported by Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who pointed at "concerns and priorities, including dollar figures" when expressing her opposition to President Biden and Majority Leader Senator Chuck Schumer.