U.S. House progressives led by Reps. Pramila Jayapal, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Cori Bush dug in their heels Tuesday as right-wing Democrats attempted to salvage a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill while sidelining the more ambitious Build Back Better package championed by the party’s left wing and President Joe Biden until after the weaker bipartisan legislation is passed.
Bloomberg reports House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and congressional Democratic leadership insisted that a framework agreement on the budget reconciliation bill would be sufficient for lawmakers to proceed with a separate vote on the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure legislation delayed by progressives earlier this month over concerns that their $3.5 trillion package would be sacrificed.
CNN chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju tweeted that after Pelosi “pushed back on progressives’ demands” that a “larger bill must pass [the] House first before they agree to vote for infrastructure,” Jayapal (D-Wash.) asserted that a framework was unacceptable.
“Our members don’t want to do that,” Jayapal said of the Congressional Progressive Caucus she chairs.
On whether there are still more than half of her caucus who hold this position, Jayapal said: “I haven’t made my way all the way through the list, that’s what I’m doing. But I would say we have several dozen.”
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 26, 2021
Pressed if she would vote against the infrastructure bill absent anything more than a framework on the larger bill, Jayapal told Raju that “at this point, there are dozens of our members who are in that place.”
Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) agreed with Jayapal, telling Bloomberg that “a mere framework is not enough.”
“We need to have a vote ready for the Build Back Better plan, not a framework,” she insisted. “We want to have both of these votes together.”
A resolute Bush (D-Mo.) also dismissed talk of a framework agreement, tweeting simply, “It’s not enough for me. And there are more of us.”
It's not enough for me.
And there are more of us. https://t.co/QxBdgocrgg
— Congresswoman Cori Bush (@RepCori) October 26, 2021
The impasse came as Bloomberg and others reported Democratic leadership is working to reduce the $3.5 trillion Build Back Better bill favored by the president and progressives to less than $2 trillion.
Some progressives took aim at right-wing, corporate-backed Democrats — namely, Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) — who have relentlessly worked to shrink the size and scope of the reconciliation package.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.