Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal acknowledged that the total price tag of the controversial spending bill currently being debated on Capitol Hill will have to be lowered in order to push it through Congress.
“We’re going to have to come down in our number,” Jayapal said Friday after leaving a meeting on Capitol Hill that included the House Democratic caucus and President Biden. “We’re going to get to work and see what we can do.”
Jayapal said that Democrats will attempt to vote on the surface transportation bill on Friday night but will not vote on the infrastructure bill today.Jayapal added that Biden, who left Capitol Hill after the meeting, gave “no timetable” on when the bill would be voted on.
Before departing the Capitol, Biden said that it “doesn’t matter if it’s in six minutes – six days – six weeks…we will get it done” Fox News is told Democrats believe the purpose of the meeting was to bring down the temperature and the internal squabbling between both sides of the caucus.
The president told Democrats that they didn’t have the votes to pass the infrastructure bill yet. He said he had to work with Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, two moderates opposed to the $3.5 trillion spending bill price tag, but it would take time to get an agreement.
