House Votes 220-212 to Move $3.5 Trillion Spending Plan Forward After 9 Democratic Objectors Cave

The House of Representatives voted narrowly on Tuesday to move forward with a $3.5 trillion spending package, a win for Democratic leaders who spent months aggressively pushing the plan.

The 220-212 vote fell along party lines after nine Democratic holdouts consented to the plan. The group included Reps. Carolyn Bourdeaux (GA), Ed Case (HI), Jim Costa (CA), Henry Cuellar (TX), Jared Golden (ME), Josh Gottheimer (NJ), Kurt Schrader (OR), Vicente Gonzalez (TX), and Filemon Vela (TX).

Without Republican votes, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is relying on a parliamentary process known as reconciliation to pass the measure by tying it to an infrastructure legislation. The Democratic holdouts had objected to using parliamentary tactics rather regular procedure to win passage.

The motion passed on Tuesday was a “rule” instructing committees to write the legislation. It still faces a steep, if likely, road to final passage. Democrats can only afford to lose three votes in the House and none in the Senate if Republicans remain unified.

Pelosi reportedly won the objectors by promising a vote on the Senate’s $550 billion infrastructure plan by September 27, though House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (LA) sounded a more skeptical tone in a Fox Business Network interview after the vote.

“I think what you saw is tremendous pressure placed by Speaker Pelosi on those liberal Democrats who are in moderate districts, and they caved,” Scalise said. “You heard her threatening to go and run people against them in their primaries, to use redistricting. I don’t know if she controls redistricting in some of those states, but threatening to redistrict people out of their own districts. That’s the kind of stuff we were hearing last night.”

Watch above via Fox Business Network.