President Joe Biden on Thursday told reporters that he won’t be signing the bipartisan infrastructure deal if Congress does not also pass a another measure—a budget resolution that Democrats call “human infrastructure” that they want to push through via reconciliation to bypass the Senate filibuster.
“I’m not just signing the bipartisan bill and forgetting about the rest that I proposed,” he later said, adding that the Democrat-pushed package that seeks to expand the nation’s social safety net is “equally important” to the bipartisan bill that deals with physical, more traditional infrastructure needs.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said at a press conference at the Capitol earlier on Thursday that she would not hold a vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill “until the Senate passes the bipartisan bill and a reconciliation bill.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he supports Pelosi’s plan, calling it “a good way to ensure that both ends go forward.”
Biden was in agreement with his Democrat colleagues, telling reporters on Thursday, “I’m going to work closely with Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer to make sure that both move through the legislative process promptly and in tandem. Let me emphasize that: and in tandem.”
The budget resolution that Democrats want to push through Congress involves what Biden proposed in his American Families Plan, which includes spending on home health care and child care, education, and other areas. The measure has been dubbed as “human infrastructure,” as opposed to the bipartisan bill that offers “physical infrastructure.”
“I’m getting to work with Congress right away on the other half of my economic agenda as well—the American Family Plan—to finish the job on childcare, education, the caring economy, clean energy tax cuts—clean energy, and tax cuts for American families, and much more,” Biden told reporters, referring to the second measure he wants passed.
Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) criticized Biden’s latest remarks. “Less than two hours after publicly commending our colleagues and actually endorsing the bipartisan agreement, the President took the extraordinary step of threatening to veto it. It almost makes your head spin,” he said on the Senate floor.
“I don’t mind working with the other side for the common good, but I’m not going to be extorted by liberal Democrats or anyone else,” he added.