Progressive Democrats hit back at the nine moderates who threatened to tank their deal with Speaker Nancy Pelosi to pass a $3.5 trillion budget package in an internecine battle that threatens to derail President Joe Biden's economic agenda.
'You're not a "moderate" Democrat if you vote against jobs with a livable wage, paid leave, child care, health care and a livable planet for American families,' wrote Rep. Rashia Tlaib of Michigan, a member of the The Squad.
'Democrats need to be the party that delivers for people. That doesn't just mean fixing roads & bridges, it means improving lives with: Child care, Paid leave, Education, Affordable housing, Medicare expansion, Lower drug prices, Climate action, A roadmap to citizenship,' tweeted Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the head of the Progressive Caucus.
And Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York, the only male member of The Squad, responded with a GIF signaling his disapproval of the moderates, who said on Friday they won't vote for the $3.5 trillion budget package until the House passes the bipartisan infrastructure bill approved by the Senate.
Rep. Rashia Tlaib of Michigan, a member of the The Squad, and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the head of the Progressive Caucus, both blasted moderates for threatening the $3.5 trillion budget
The threat sets up a battle between the two wings of the party, each of which has enough votes to sink the other piece of legislation.
And it puts Speaker Pelosi in between a rock and a hard place. Unless she can convince one wing of the party or another to reverse course, both piece of legislation fail and a major piece of Biden's economic agenda collapses.
The competing demands between the moderates and liberals essentially has Pelosi in a stalemate and threatens an early deal she made with progressives, who vastly outnumber the moderates with their 96 members of the Progressive Caucus. Pelosi told liberals she will not bring the bipartisan infrastructure plan to the House floor until the Senate approves their social programs.
Given the Democrats' small majority in the House, Pelosi can only afford to lose three votes on any piece of legislation.
A threat from House moderates put Speaker Nancy Pelosi between a rock and a hard place between the liberal and moderate wings of Democratic Party
Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey is leading the effort by moderates, which is threatening to derail Pelosi's deal with liberals like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York
Nine moderate Democrats threatening mutiny with Pelosi
The nine moderate Democrats who wrote to Speaker Pelosi to say they won't vote for budget deal unless House passes infrastructure first:
Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey
Rep. Vicente Gonzalez of Texas
Rep. Filemon Vela of Texas
Rep. Jared Golden of Maine
Rep. Ed Case of Hawaii
Rep. Kurt Schrader of Oregon
Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas
Rep. Jim Costa of California
Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux of Georgia
'With the livelihoods of hardworking American families at stake, we simply can't afford months of unnecessary delays and risk squandering this one-in-a-century, bipartisan infrastructure package,' the nine lawmakers, led by Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, wrote to Pelosi. 'It's time to get shovels in the ground and people to work.'
'We will not consider voting for a budget resolution until the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passes the House and is signed into law,' the moderates wrote in their letter, which was obtained by The New York Times.
The Senate passed the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill - which funds traditional projects like roads and bridges - on Tuesday with 69 votes, including 19 Republicans.
The Senate then approved on Wednesday the $3.5 trillion budget resolution with only Democratic votes. If the House passes the resolution, it will allow Democrats in both chambers to pass a massive social policy program - including free pre-school, expanded paid family and medical leave, and environmental programs - this fall without fear of a Republican filibuster in the Senate.
Pelosi, to appease liberals in the House, said she would not bring the infrastructure bill up for a vote until the Senate passed the social policy bill.
Democrats' budget framework allocates billions of dollars to Senate committees to begin drafting proposals for final bill
Agriculture: $135 billion for conservation, drought, and forestry programs to reduce carbon emissions and prevent wildfires; clean energy investments; agricultural climate research; Civilian Climate Corps funding, child nutrition and debt relief
Banking: $332 billion for housing programs, including down payment and rental assistance and community investment
Commerce: $83 billion for technology and transportation; coastal resilience and oceans; funding for the National Science Foundation.
Energy: $198 billion for clean electricity; rebates to weatherize and electrify homes; financing for domestic manufacturing of clean energy and auto supply chain technologies; federal procurement of energy efficient materials; climate research
Environment and Public Works: $67 billion for low-income solar and climate-friendly technologies; clean water affordability and access; EPA climate and research programs; federal investments in energy efficient buildings and green materials
Finance: At least $1 billion in deficit reduction. 'This will provide the Committee with flexibility to make investment, revenue and offset decisions consistent with the policy recommendations,' the instructions state. Offsets to include: Corporate and international tax reform; taxing high-income individuals; IRS tax enforcement
Health, Education, Labor and Pensions: $726 billion for universal pre-K for 3 and 4-year olds; child care; tuition-free community college; investments in HBCUs, MSIs, HSIs, TCUs, and ANNHIs; increase the maximum Pell grant award; School infrastructure, student success grants, and educator investments; Investments in primary care; pandemic preparedness
Homeland Security: $37 billion for electrifying the federal vehicle fleet; electrifying federal buildings; improving cybersecurity infrastructure; border management investments; investments in green materials and resilience
Judiciary: $107 billion for lawful permanent status for qualified immigrants and border security
Indian Affairs: $20.5 billion for native health, education, housing, energy and climate programs and facilities
Small Business: $25 billion for small business access to credit, investment, and markets
Veterans Affairs: $18 billion for upgrades to VA facilities
But, with the Senate out for the summer, that may not happen into the fall, particularly as Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer needs to get his own moderate Democrats - particularly Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema - on board. Both Manchin and Sinema have raised concerns about the $3.5 trillion cost.
Friday's threat from moderates, however, endangers the two-track plan of passage that President Biden and congressional Democratic leaders saw as their way to ensure they get both pieces of legislation signed into law.
The letter is also signed by Democratic Reps. Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, Filemon Vela of Texas, Jared Golden of Maine, Ed Case of Hawaii, Kurt Schrader of Oregon, Henry Cuellar of Texas, Jim Costa of California and Carolyn Bourdeaux of Georgia.
The House is scheduled to return the week of August 23 to vote on the budget resolution.
Pelosi and Schumer have told their committee chairs in their respective chambers to draft the social policy package - also known as reconciliation legislation - by September 15.
The goal of leadership is to have both bills passed by late September or early October. But if the House can't pass the budget resolution, those plans could collapse.
Pelosi told Democrats on Wednesday she will not bring bipartisan infrastructure bill for a vote in the House until the Senate passed the other measure.
'I am not freelancing. This is the consensus,' she said on a call with House Democrats, according to The Hill newspaper.
'The president has said he's all for the bipartisan approach ... bravo! That's progress, but it ain't the whole vision,' Pelosi said on the call.
'The votes in the House and Senate depend on us having both bills.'
The speaker was under heavy pressure from the liberal wing of her party.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, informed Pelosi in a letter on Tuesday that she had taken a poll of their liberal members, who said they would not support the infrastructure bill without the budget reconciliation package.
'A majority of respondents affirmed that they would withhold their votes in support of the bipartisan legislation in the House of Representatives until the Senate adopted a robust reconciliation package,' Jayapal wrote.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her fellow members of 'The Squad' are part of that group.
The Democrat from New York has been clear she will not support one piece of legislation without the other.
'If there is not a reconciliation bill in the House and if the Senate does not pass a reconciliation bill, we will uphold our end of the bargain and not pass the bipartisan bill until we get all of these investments in,' Ocasio-Cortez said on CNN's 'State of the Union.'
She added that the contents of the bipartisan bill 'are not all, you know, Candyland. There are some of these political pay-fors that are very alarming.'