Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) said Friday that Democrats are within striking distance of winning an agreement on President Joe Biden’s sweeping domestic social infrastructure agenda. Returning to the Capitol from a White House breakfast with the president, the Speaker said there are “a couple outstanding issues” to iron out in the health care space, but the environmental aspects of the bill “are resolved” and she’s “optimistic” that a deal is close. A key barrier to a deal has emerged in recent days in the form of Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-Arizona), whose opposition to tax hikes on corporations and wealthy individuals, big revenue-raisers that were included in the Democrats’ initial $3.5 trillion package, has forced party leaders to seek offsets elsewhere. Democratic Leadership has not said if they are far enough along to vote on the social benefits package, along with a separate bipartisan infrastructure bill, by the end of next week. Party leaders had set October 31st as an informal timeline for staging those votes, since the authorization for federal highway funding expires the same day.
The Senate stands in recess until 3:00 P.M. on Monday, October 25th at which time it will resume consideration of the nomination of Jia M. Cobb to be United States District Judge for the District of Columbia as well as Douglas L. Parker to be an Assistant Secretary of Labor, and Myrna Perez to be United States Circuit Judge for the Second Circuit.
The House will conclude its work for the week by considering H.R. 3110 – PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act. On Monday, the House will meet at 12:00 P.M. for Morning Hour and 2:00 p.m. for legislative business, with votes expected no earlier than 6:30 p.m.
