Nancy Pelosi Blasts GOP Efforts to Block Funding Bill: ‘Isn’t That Irresponsible Beyond Words?’
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) blasted GOP efforts to block Democrats’ proposed $3.5 trillion budget bill, as a possible government shutdown looms at the end of the government’s fiscal year on Sept. 30.
Pelosi began by saying she might not bring the bipartisan infrastructure deal to the House floor on Monday, as she had previously stated.
“I’m never bringing to the floor a bill that doesn’t have the votes,” Pelosi told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. She noted that “this isn’t about moderates versus progressives, [because] overwhelmingly the entirety of our caucus, except for a few whose judgement I respect, support the vision of [President] Joe Biden and we will make progress on it this week.”
She said the vote still “may be tomorrow.”
When it came to the proposed $3.5 spending bill — an iteration of which is necessary to avoid a government shutdown — Pelosi told Stephanopoulos that it is “self-evident” that the price tag will be reduced following negotiations.
The bill is expected to receive no Republican support and some moderate Democrats, such as Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), have indicated they would not support the bill as it currently stands.
“Obviously with negotiations there will have to be some changes with that, the sooner the better so that we can build our consensus to go forward, and we will do that,” Pelosi said.
Stephanopoulos then pressed Pelosi whether she had the majority vote required to pass the funding bill — which with zero Republican support, would require all Democrats to vote in favor. However, Pelosi said she hopes it won’t turn into a party-line vote.
“We want this to be bipartisan,” she said. “If we didn’t want it to be bipartisan, we would have put it in the reconciliation bill.”
She then remarked about the GOP opposition: “Isn’t that irresponsible beyond words? The full faith and credit in the United States should not be questioned. That’s in the Constitution of the United States.”
“Let’s hope that Republicans will find some level — enough of them — find some level of responsibility to our country to honor what’s in the Constitution that we not question the full faith and credit of the United States of America,” she said. “They know full well what the consequences are. They preached it when the former president was in office. And we always cooperated, it’s always been bipartisan. And it should be again.”
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