As Democrats move past the skirmish with Republicans to avert the debt limit crisis for now, Democrats are returning to work on the Build Back Better bill, the sweeping social safety net package that makes up part of President Joe Biden’s economic agenda.

With progressives and moderates working to negotiate on the bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., expressed disappointment at a press conference Tuesday that Democrats will have to scale back the $3.5 trillion figure initially proposed, but pledged that the final result will still be “transformative” and “will produce results.”

What You Need To Know

  • House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., expressed disappointment at a press conference Tuesday that Democrats will have to scale back the $3.5 trillion figure initially proposed for the sweeping Build Back Better bill, but pledged that the final result will still be “transformative” and “will produce results.”

  • Pelosi suggested that members of her caucus want to include all of the bill’s proposals — which would fund measures to fight climate change, provide universal pre-Kindergarten and free community college and establish a paid family leave program — and could pare back the years of guaranteed funding in the bill rather than cut programs

  • Moderate Democrats, led by Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., have signaled a willingness for a $1.5 trillion plan, and President Biden is pitching a compromise in the range of $1.9-$2 trillion

  • With an evenly divided Senate and a razor-thin majority in the House, Democrats can't afford to lose any votes – and Pelosi said Tuesday that she will not bring a bill to the House floor that won't also pass the Senate

“The fact is is that if there are fewer dollars to spend, there are choices to be made,” the California Democrat said Tuesday. “And the members have said ‘let's get the results that we need,’ but we will not diminish the transformative nature of what it is.”

After missing a deadline last month to pass both parts of Biden’s economic plan — the Build Back Better bill and the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill that already passed the Senate — Democrats have expressed optimism that they can get this done. But with an evenly divided Senate and a razor-thin majority in the House, Democrats can't afford to lose any votes – and Pelosi said Tuesday that she will not bring a bill to the House floor that won't also pass the Senate.

Pelosi’s remarks came after a Monday night letter to colleagues where she seemed to indicate that cuts might have to be made to the sweeping measure, which would fund measures to fight climate change, provide universal pre-Kindergarten and free community college and establish a paid family leave program.

“In order to pass both the Build Back Better Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill on time, it is essential that difficult decisions must be made very soon,” Pelosi wrote. “Overwhelmingly, the guidance I am receiving from Members is to do fewer things well so that we can still have a transformative impact on families in the workplace and responsibly address the climate crisis: a Build Back Better agenda for jobs and the planet For The Children!”

But on Tuesday, Pelosi suggested that members of her caucus want to include all of the bill’s proposals — including the ones related to education, paid leave, an extension of the child tax credit and home health care — and could pare back the years of guaranteed funding in the bill rather than cut programs.

Moderate Democrats, led by Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., have signaled a willingness for a $1.5 trillion plan, and President Biden is pitching a compromise in the range of $1.9-$2 trillion. 

“We are still talking about a couple of trillion dollars,” Pelosi said, but acknowledged that “it’s much less” than progressives hoped for.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., the Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said that progressives are willing to compromise on the bill because of “such slim margins in our majority and no room for disagreement,” but said they will still push for $3.5 trillion, noting that “we still don't yet have a counter-proposal” from moderates.

Jayapal signaled the progressive caucus might agree with paring back guaranteed years rather than cutting programs from the bill, agreeing with Pelosi: “We were happy to see the speaker say something similar in her press conference today as well."

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the chair of the Senate Budget Committee, agreed with Rep. Jayapal’s sentiment: “We are prepared to negotiate. We are prepared to compromise. But we are not going to negotiate with ourselves.”

Sanders added that it is “long overdue” that moderates bring a proper counter-offer to the table: “It is absolutely incumbent upon the senators and the few members of the House in opposition to start telling us what they want.”

As Democrats hash out what they can cut from the bill, Sanders said that removing an expansion to Medicare to include dental and vision coverage is a red line for him: "This to me is not negotiable."

“We have some important decisions to make in the next few days so that we can proceed,” Pelosi told reporters Tuesday. 

Jayapal said that both parts of Biden’s economic plan must be passed in tandem.

“We have been clear since June that there can't be an infrastructure bill without an agreement on the reconciliation bill,” Jayapal said. “The two move together or not at all, and we believe the two will move together.”

Congressional leadership has hoped for an Oct. 31 deadline to pass both bills, but Jayapal said that “arbitrary deadlines are never good,” adding: “We all want to work as quickly as we can.”

Or, as Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren put it on Tuesday: “It's time to quit fiddling around and get this done."