Centrist Democrats refuse to yield on passage of infrastructure bill

Court documents include a complaint supporting the arrest warrant issued for Owen Shroyer.

WASHINGTON — With just hours to go until the House returns for a brief session, competing Democratic priorities are still threatening to derail the adoption of a budget resolution needed to begin the process for enacting the party’s economic agenda.

All nine House Democrats who recently told Speaker Nancy Pelosi that they won’t vote for the budget unless the House sends the Senate-passed bipartisan infrastructure bill to President Biden’s desk first are holding firm to that position, the members or their offices told CQ Roll Call.

Pelosi has also remained steadfast in her position that the House needs to hold on to the $1 trillion infrastructure measure until the Senate passes a $3.5 trillion reconciliation package implementing instructions laid out in the budget resolution.

Dozens of progressive Democrats have said they won’t vote for the infrastructure bill without moderates in the House and Senate supporting the reconciliation package, leaving leadership to believe the only way to pass both is to move them together. But moderates think there’s enough Republican support on infrastructure to overcome progressive opposition.

The House is scheduled to return Monday from its August recess for what leaders hope will be a two-day session to adopt the budget and pass voting rights legislation.

But nine moderate

Democrats — Reps. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, Carolyn Bourdeaux of Georgia, Jared Golden of Maine, Ed Case of Hawaii, Jim Costa of Fresno, Kurt Schrader of Oregon and Texans Filemon Vela, Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez — have repeatedly warned that if leadership doesn’t schedule a vote on the infrastructure bill, they will block the budget.

Pelosi offered a small concession last weekend, saying Democrats would vote on a rule that sets up debate parameters for both the budget and the bipartisan infrastructure bill, but that would not speed up final passage of the infrastructure bill. The nine moderates rejected the overture, saying that while they “appreciate the forward procedural movement,” their position had not changed.

While not part of the dispute, the voting rights bill could also get caught in the crosshairs. Leadership decided that measure will also be part of the combined rule for the budget and infrastructure bill that the Rules Committee is planning to report out Monday afternoon for a floor vote that evening.

Failure to reach a compromise with some or all of the moderate Democrats on the budget would, at a minimum, delay plans to assemble a reconciliation package containing a host of party priorities, such as universal prekindergarten, free community college and expansion of Medicare benefits.