Nine centrist House Democrats threaten to oppose budget without infrastructure

Nine Democrats, led by New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer, are threatening to vote against the fiscal 2022 budget resolution until the House passes and President Joe Biden signs the Senate-passed bipartisan infrastructure bill.

“We will not consider voting for a budget resolution until the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passes the House and is signed into law,” the Democrats wrote in a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi released publicly Friday.

Besides Gottheimer, the members who signed the letter include Georgia’s Carolyn Bourdeaux, Maine’s Jared Golden, Hawaii’s Ed Case, California’s Jim Costa, Oregon’s Kurt Schrader and Texans Filemon Vela, Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez.

Together, they’ve got more than enough support to stall the budget in the narrowly divided House where Democrats can lose no more than three members on party-line votes. No Republicans are expected to vote for the budget resolution, which is needed to begin the process on a $3.5 trillion reconciliation package chock full of Democratic priorities.

All nine members except for Bourdeaux had signed a letter sent to Pelosi on Tuesday with a less threatening request for a standalone vote on the infrastructure bill, “without regard to other legislation.” Nevada Rep. Susie Lee had signed that letter but did not sign onto the latest missive.

Pelosi has repeatedly said she would not bring the bipartisan infrastructure bill to the House floor until the Senate passes the implementing reconciliation bill, which would follow the instructions laid out in the budget and is not expected to be ready for floor action until late September at the earliest.

“I am not freelancing. This is the consensus,” Pelosi said on a Democratic Caucus call Wednesday, after the group’s initial letter pushing for a vote on the infrastructure bill.