President Joe Biden will host Democratic leaders and lawmakers at the White House Wednesday in an effort to pull together his party to get his two major bills passed, as Republicans threaten to use the debt ceiling to hold Biden's legislative agenda hostage.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will meet with Biden, as well as progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders, and a handful of both progressive and moderate House members.
Biden needs progressives to support his $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal and moderates to be comfortable with the $3.5 trillion budget bill, which will be passed through Congress using the process of reconciliation - meaning Democrats can skip needing GOP support.
President Joe Biden is hosting moderate and progressive lawmakers at the White House Wednesday in an effort to pull his party together to get his legislative agenda passed
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (left) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (right) are expected to head to the White House for the afternoon meeting
Representing the progressive wing of the party is Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is also expected to attend
Punchbowl News reported that moderate Reps. Josh Gottheimer, Stephanie Murphy, Steven Horsford, Suzan DelBene and Mike Thompson would make the trip to the White House, along with progressive Reps. Pramila Jayapal, Mark Pocan, Barbara Lee and Jim McGovern.
Pelosi had previously promised Gottheimer, who chairs the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, that she would put the bipartisan infrastructure bill on the floor by Monday.
This bill already passed the Senate.
Progressives in the House led by Jayapal have threatened to block the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill because once it's passed, they lose some of their political capital to get the $3.5 trillion budget bill - filled with liberal goodies - across the line.
The Democratic maneuvering is happening as Republicans believe they see a chance to scale back Biden's sweeping domestic agenda while boosting their odds of retaking Congress in 2022.
The Republican gambit passed an initial political test on Tuesday, when the House of Representatives voted 220-211 along party lines to approve a measure to suspend the $28.4 trillion debt ceiling and fund the federal government beyond Sept. 30, when the current fiscal year ends.
Moderate Rep. Josh Gottheimer (pictured) had Pelosi promise to bring the bipartisan infrastructure bill to the floor by Monday. But progressives are threatening to derail it because the $3.5 trillion budget bill isn't far enough along yet
Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell has made it clear that his caucus, which holds half the chamber's 100 seats, will block it, seeking to frame the vote as a referendum on the $3.5 trillion budget bill progressives and Biden want to see passed.
The stakes are high.
