The majority of House Republicans are planning to oppose the Senate-passed, bipartisan infrastructure bill when it comes to a vote on Monday.
House Democrats have linked the infrastructure bill’s fate to passage of a broad $3.5 trillion social spending package that has generated infighting between moderate and liberal Democrats. Republicans don’t seem in a rush to help save the infrastructure bill, but GOP lawmakers interviewed by POLITICO said support could triple if the bill were decoupled from the big tax-and-spend package that Democrats want to advance through the reconciliation process.
“If the $3.5 trillion reconciliation push dies, there will be more GOP support,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), a member of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has not communicated to his caucus how the GOP rank-and-file should handle a stand-alone vote on infrastructure, but McCarthy made clear this week he views the bill as firmly linked to the social spending bill that Republicans firmly oppose.
“I view it as one combined,” McCarthy told POLITICO. “I don’t see how it’s standalone when Pelosi talks about holding it all together.”
Some Democrats have suggested the infrastructure bill just be brought up at a later date, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) promised moderates in her party to hold the infrastructure vote no later than Sept. 27.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) did not rule out the possibility the infrastructure vote could come later than Monday, saying this week that the bill “is going to pass at one point in time. One way or the other.”
