Infrastructure Vote Delayed Until Later This Month

By Emily Wong posted 10-07-2021 10:55 AM

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APGA has been closely tracking the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which contains $1 billion in grant funding for municipally and community-owned gas utilities. The legislation, which passed the Senate in August, was scheduled for a vote in the House of Representatives last week. Despite several delays to allow for last minute negotiations, House leadership was forced to cancel the vote because they lacked the support needed for passage.

Members of the House Progressive Caucus, the more liberal wing of the Democratic Party, made it clear to leadership that they would not vote for the bipartisan bill until they were certain the reconciliation package, the Build Back Better Act, would pass the Senate. Senators Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) have stated publicly that they will not vote for reconciliation unless major cuts are made to lower the $3.5 trillion price tag. When it became clear a reconciliation compromise was not going to be reached prior to a vote on the bipartisan bill, the White House threw its support behind progressives’ decision to withhold support until both bills are ready to move together.
The White House and Democratic Congressional leaders have indicated they expect the reconciliation compromise to be around $1.5-2 trillion in spending, which is a significant reduction. Democrats will be forced to either cut some of their proposals, reduce the length of time for which programs are authorized, introduce the idea of means testing for some programs, or some combination of these approaches.

Because the bipartisan bill contained language to reauthorize existing surface transportation programs which expired at the end of September, Congress was forced to pass a short-term funding agreement to prevent those programs from running out of money when the vote was cancelled. The funding agreement runs through October 31, creating a new deadline for voting on both the bipartisan bill and the reconciliation package.

Fortunately, Congress was able to pass a continuing resolution last week to fund the government through December, and they appear to be close to a compromise that would allow them to raise the debt ceiling through the end of the year as well. With those two issues handled, Congress will be free to focus attention on trying to negotiate a reconciliation package that can satisfy both the House and the Senate. APGA will be closely monitoring this process.

For questions on this article, please contact Emily Wong of APGA staff by phone at 202-470-4262 or by email at ewong@apga.org.

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