Moderate Dems Threaten to Block $3.5 Spending Plan

Moderate Democrats aren’t on board with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s plan to hold the recently passed infrastructure bill hostage until she gets a vote on Democrat’s $3.5 trillion spending plan. In a new move, a group of moderate Democrats is threatening to turn on Pelosi if she doesn’t allow the House to move forward with the infrastructure bill first.

Fox News reports:

“Some have suggested that we hold off on considering the Senate infrastructure bill for months – until the reconciliation process is completed. We disagree,” the group of nine Democrats said in the letter. “With the livelihoods of hardworking American families at stake, we simply can’t afford months of unnecessary delays and risk squandering this once-in-a-century, bipartisan infrastructure package.”

The group added: “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 nine Democrats who signed the letter are Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J.; Jared Golden, D-Maine.; Carolyn Bourdeaux, D-Ga.; Filemon Vela, D-Texas; Henry Cuellar, D-Texas; Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas; Ed Case, D-Hawaii; Jim Costa, D-Calif.; and Kurt Schrader, D-Ore.

Those nine are enough to prevent the budget resolution recently passed by Senate Democrats from making it through the House. Republicans are expected to uniformly vote against it, and the party split in the House is 220-212 with three vacancies.

It’s not clear yet if Nancy Pelosi will cave to the group’s demands but she may be left with no choice.