Key Moderate Dem Rips Progressives for Threatening to ‘Blow Up’ Biden’s Agenda

A key House moderate is criticizing his progressive colleagues for threatening to derail President Joe Biden’s agenda if the chamber holds a stand-alone vote on the bipartisan infrastructure package.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) told CNN’s “New Day” Wednesday, “Everyone is working around the clock, including Sen. on getting it done. She was at the White House yesterday. Obviously, I wasn’t in that meeting, and all I know is that great progress was made, and we’re going to keep working today.”

“But again… these are two separate pieces of legislation, you don’t hold up and not vote for an infrastructure package that’s historic, once in a century, that will help fix everything from water to broadband to fighting climate change to the Gateway Tunnel between New York and New Jersey, you don’t hold that up and hold it hostage while we’re working on another piece of legislation,” he continued.

Finally, Gottheimer said, “We’re going to get both done. But I’ll tell you, it just doesn’t make any sense to me that you have a faction of folks in my party that would blow up the president’s agenda, refuse to vote on infrastructure as some sort of way to hold up progress. So that’s why I believe at the end of the day, we’ll unify, we’ll get it done.”

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Gottheimer has been a lead negotiator for moderates in the debate over the handling of the roughly $1 trillion infrastructure bill and a $3.5 trillion spending package.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) previously committed to holding a vote on the infrastructure bill on Sept. 27. However, as progressive Democrats threatened to sink that bill unless it was accompanied by the separate spending package, she pushed the vote back to Thursday.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chair of the House Progressive Caucus, told CNN on Sept. 22, “We want to make sure that both bills are moving together, and we’re going to hold to that commitment. And so yes, half our members, more than half our members, will not move the bipartisan bill without the reconciliation bill being passed.”

On Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) tweeted, “I strongly urge my House colleagues to vote against the bipartisan infrastructure bill until Congress passes a strong reconciliation bill.”

“Let’s be crystal clear. If the bipartisan infrastructure bill is passed on its own on Thursday, this will be in violation of an agreement that was reached within the Democratic Caucus in Congress,” he said.