Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is planning a floor vote next week on the Build Back Better (BBB) Act even as conservative Democrats say they want to see full cost estimates from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) before committing their support.
Pelosi told reporters in Glasgow on Tuesday at the U.N. climate change conference that she is holding to the plan “to pass the bill the week of Nov. 15", as was announced last week at the passing of the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
The CBO issued a statement this week saying that cost estimates for some provisions of the social spending and climate package would be released this week, but added, “The analysis of the bill’s many provisions is complicated, and CBO will provide a cost estimate for the entire bill as soon as practicable.”
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus and delivered key votes for the infrastructure package last week, also said next week is the deadline for a vote on the $1.75 trillion bill (H.R. 5376) to fight climate change and help struggling families.
“To clarify for everyone: the agreement we made with our colleagues was NOT for CBO score,” Jayapal tweeted Tuesday night. “It was for some additional financial information from CBO. Agreement also says that in no event would the vote take place later than the week of Nov. 15. We trust our colleagues’ commitments.”
Five moderate House Democrats sent a letter to Pelosi last week saying they want an official score from CBO for the BBB Act as well as assurances the bill will be pre-conferenced with the Senate.
“While we understand the needs of the nation are great, we believe our job as legislators is to provide the due diligence required to properly serve our constituents,” said Reps. Ed Case (D-HI), Jared Golden (D-ME), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Stephanie Murphy (D-FL) and Kurt Schrader (D-OR). “It is better to get this done right than to needlessly rush its consideration only for our constituents to discover the negative impacts of our unintended consequences.”
This article was provided to OSAP by ASAE's Power of A and Inroads.