Tuesday afternoon, the House of Representatives met in an emergency session to consider rules on Sen. Sanders’ (I-Vt.) budget proposal, the Senate-passed infrastructure bill, and the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act.
In a vote on rules to advance Sanders’ budget resolution, the House approved the proposal on a thin, party-line vote. All 212 Republicans voted against advancing the budget, having spent much of today’s session pleading Democrats to “put politics aside” and deal with the Afghanistan crisis first. All 220 Democrats voted to advance the resolution.
The vote followed weeks of a prolonged stalemate between moderates in the House who refused to vote for the budget proposal before passing the infrastructure bill, and progressives who refused to vote for the infrastructure bill before passing the budget proposal.
In an emergency meeting with the leader of the House moderates last night, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) met with Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), the de facto leader of the moderate rebels. The meeting continued into this morning. Afterward, Pelosi expressed optimism that she had the votes, but uncertainty continued as to whether the agreement the two had met would satisfy the other holdouts. With the advancement of the proposal, it is clear that the moderates found Pelosi’s deal acceptable.
With this passage, the budget proposal is one step closer to the president’s desk, but will still face challenges from Senate moderates like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.), who has expressed concerns about its huge $3.5 trillion price tag.
From The Epoch Times
