By Rebecca Shabad, Leigh Ann Caldwell and Sahil Kapur -
NBC News
The Democratic Party was prepared to vote on two key budget projects on the president's agenda, Joe Biden, on Friday, after weeks of seeking the necessary support.
But at the last minute they changed course
announcing that they would only vote on the infrastructure plan,
leaving the social spending law, which includes immigration measures, for another day
.
Within minutes, Biden's plan was in doubt.
In a letter to her colleagues, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, said that this Friday the infrastructure law of 555,000 million will be voted and the debate will begin on the law of social spending of 1.75 trillion dollars, which contains casualties. paid, immigrant work permits, and changes in state and local tax deductions.
The infrastructure plan has already been approved by the Senate, so if ratified, it will go directly to the president's table to be signed.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, center, addresses reporters with other Democratic leaders to offer information about the voting delays.
Scott Applewhite / AP
"The agenda that we are promoting is transformative and historic, therefore, it is a challenge," said Pelosi.
The announcement came after
a small but fundamental group of centrists
said they would not vote in favor of the social spending bill
without a full analysis from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) showing that it
was it has the necessary funds to carry it out
.
But the more progressive lawmakers, who have spent months insisting that the bills move forward together, immediately opposed it, raising doubts that the infrastructure package will have the necessary votes to pass the House of Representatives on Friday.
[Border agents posted cruel and insulting messages about migrants on Facebook. His punishment was not adequate]
"As we have constantly said, there are dozens of our members who want to pass both bills together," said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Washington and chair of the
progressive
caucus
.
"However, if our six colleagues still want to wait for a report from the CBO, we would agree to give them that time, after which we can vote on both bills together," he added.
If the vote were to take place, it
would put progressive lawmakers in a quandary.
They fear that passing the infrastructure bill alone could cede some of their influence to shape the social spending bill.
But turning him down would be an embarrassing defeat for Biden and the party.
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Lawmakers began Friday by planning to pass both bills.
But the process lost steam within minutes of starting.
Shortly after 8:00 am ET, House Republicans made a motion to adjourn, a common minority measure used to stop the process.
But more than six hours later, House Democrats still hadn't finished voting, an unusually long time for this process.
Democrats stalled the process to buy time to force legislators to vote "yes" on the two bills
, and to gain more support for social finance legislation.
Up to seven moderately-minded members of the party resisted supporting the social spending
of Biden's
Build Back Better
proposal
, two sources told NBC News, the sister network of Noticias Telemundo.
Before backing it, those lawmakers expected the Congressional Budget Office to provide an estimate on the measure's costs, a calculation that Democratic leaders made clear would not be ready Friday.
These are the key points of Plan C, the most recent proposal to benefit immigrants
Nov. 4, 202102: 58
A Democratic adviser said it could take weeks to calculate.
Two projections were published on Thursday that were not enough to clarify the doubts of moderate legislators about how much the country's deficit can increase with this social spending initiative.
By a White House estimate, the bill is "fully paid for," while the nonpartisan Joint Tax Committee believes the measure would raise $ 1.47 trillion in new taxes.
[How does skin color affect Latinos in their daily life?]
The skeptical group of Democrats includes Representatives Stephanie Murphy (Florida), Ed Case (Hawaii), Jared Golden (Maine), Kurt Schrader (Oregon), Abigail Spanberger (Virginia), Kathleen Rice (New York), and Carolyn Bourdeaux (Georgia). ).
Bourdeaux announced on Friday that he would vote "yes" on the social spending bill.
Some of the other representatives seemed more willing to endorse the law than others.
President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Speak in a Capitol hallway in Washington, Friday, Oct. 1, 2021.
Scott Applewhite / AP
Lawmakers met with Lower House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday morning, but two sources suggested to NBC News that they
were "very entrenched
.
"
For his part, Biden called numerous representatives on Thursday to guarantee their support.
In public statements, he asked the House of Representatives to vote "right now."
For months, Democrats have run into obstacles in pushing through these two bills because of divisions within the party between moderate and progressive lawmakers.
The leaders have had to postpone the vote on the infrastructure package several times due to the insistence of progressives that it only be voted together with the social spending bill
.
[A migrant who was about to achieve citizenship is killed when a sports star crashes her car at 156 miles per hour]
Pelosi said in her weekly press conference Thursday that she was "very unhappy" that the lower house did not approve the infrastructure measure last week.
"We are going to pass both bills, but to do so, we have to have votes for both bills," he said.
