JUST IN: No Vote Tonight On Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, Will Try Again Tomorrow (UPDATED)
Democrats were unable to reach a deal regarding the infrastructure bill Thursday evening, and decided not to hold a vote on the contentiously debated legislation, instead waiting until Friday to resume discussions.
CNN’s Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins reported the news, telling host Don Lemon that she and her colleagues Ryan Nobles and Manu Raju had been on the Hill all day long, going back and forth between the White House and the floor, reporting on the ongoing negotiation efforts from the Biden administration, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) office, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) office.
The infrastructure bill contains many items that are a key part of President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda, but it has faced loud opposition from both the progressive wing of the party, who want to see additional funding and other items covered, and moderate Democrats Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), who have balked at the bill’s multi-trillion dollar price tag.
“They are not going to come to a decision tonight,” said Collins. “It seemed pretty obvious this morning when we heard from progressives that they didn’t have the votes to get this infrastructure bill passed tonight, and Nancy Pelosi said she would not bring a vote to the floor if they did not have the votes, and this is the conclusion they’ve reached.”
Late night talks had continued between top White House aides going around Capitol Hill, to Schumer and Pelosi’s offices for the past several hours, Collins continued, “but now they have decided there will be no vote tonight and they will reassess this tomorrow about whether a vote will happen then.”
Further confirmation that the discussions had come to an end this evening, Collins reported, was that Biden had returned to the Residence tonight.
Progressive Democrats like Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) had been loudly criticizing the efforts to not just get a vote today, but to hold it so late at night. Sanders told reporters that the whole process was “absurd” when he emerged from a meeting in Schumer’s office earlier in the evening.
Manchin had “also urged his people to vote it down,” reported Collins.
UPDATE 11:10 pm ET: White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki released a statement a few minutes ago reacting to the decision to not hold a vote tonight, saying that the president was “grateful to Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer for their extraordinary leadership, and to Members from across the Democratic Caucus who have worked so hard the past few days to try to reach an agreement on how to proceed on the Infrastructure Bill and the Build Back Better plan.”
“A great deal of progress has been made this week, and we are closer to an agreement than ever,” Psaki continued. “But we are not there yet, and so, we will need some additional time to finish the work, starting tomorrow morning first thing.”
Psaki on news Congress won’t vote tonight on infrastructure: “A great deal of progress has been made this week, & we are closer to an agreement than ever. But we are not there yet, & so, we will need some additional time to finish the work, starting tomorrow morning first thing.” pic.twitter.com/WUZIoFHVU0
— DJ Judd (@DJJudd) October 1, 2021
Watch the video above, via CNN.
This is a breaking news story and has been updated.
