Airport Alert: White House Releases New Reconciliation Framework in Attempt to Unlock Infrastructure Vote

October 28, 2021 

This morning, the White House released a slimmed-down, $1.75 trillion reconciliation framework in the hope that the compromised package will appease both moderate and progressive Democrats, and thereby unlock a vote in the House on the Senate-passed, $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill (BIB). 

After the revised framework was released, President Biden made another high-stakes visit to Capitol Hill to sell the contents of the new package to the House Democratic caucus, and in particular, to skeptical House progressives who have watched many of their priorities get stripped from the original $3.5 trillion reconciliation package. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has already called for the House Rules Committee to begin consideration of the revised reconciliation package, and immediately after the meeting with the president, the speaker announced her intention to hold a vote on the BIB sometime today. Soon after, Democratic leadership began formally whipping votes for the BIB.

While this framework illustrates tangible progress after weeks of negotiations, a number of roadblocks likely remain for the BIB to get a vote today. Several members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) have said they need to see actual legislative text (which could take days or weeks to finalize) before they would vote for the BIB. Other progressives maintain a higher bar to clear, indicating that they will only vote for the BIB if a vote on the reconciliation package occurs on the same day. It is also uncertain whether all elements of this framework are finalized, and furthermore, if they have the full support of key stakeholders like Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV), Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT). With only a 3-vote majority in the House and a 50-50 Senate, Democrats must have essentially everyone on board to move forward. 

There are various reasons for the White House and Democratic leadership's urgency to pass the BIB today. First, funding for key highway programs expires October 31, and the BIB contains a full, five-year reauthorization of those programs; however, Congress could simply pass another short-term extension, as they did last month when these programs were first set to expire. Second, polls for the Virginia governor's race have narrowed over the past few weeks to a statistical tie. This race is often seen as a national bellwether on the president's policies and a foretoken for the Congressional midterms, which is why Democrats would like to notch a big policy win before the election on November 2. Finally, later today, President Biden leaves for Europe to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference, which is seen by the White House as a pivotal opportunity for the U.S. to tout its leadership on tackling climate change on the world stage. As such, the president wants to be able to showcase concrete actions his administration is taking to address the issue, including the various clean energy and climate provisions that are in both the reconciliation package and the BIB.

We will continue to monitor the situation on Capitol Hill and provide updates as more information comes out.