Rep. Jayapal Wants Senate to Vote on Reconciliation Before House Votes on Infrastructure
EXCERPT:
JAYAPAL: "What I’ve consistently said — first of all let me start by saying I’m really proud of our caucus. We have been so united in standing up for the President’s agenda and really making sure that we don’t leave behind women who need childcare, families who need paid leave, communities that need us to address climate change, housing, immigration. These are the things we’re fighting for in the Build Back Better agenda, and it's the President's agenda and I know the White House deeply appreciates that we’re fighting for the President’s agenda. Second, you know, I think as we’ve said from the beginning, we have been waiting for an offer to counter the $3.5 trillion on the table, and we understand we’ll have to get everybody on board in order to be able to close this deal. So, we’re waiting for that and I believe there are really good conversations happening at the White House with those senators on what that offer is going to be. So until we get that, we don’t have anything to say about numbers. So, if you ask me about whether I’m willing to accept a number or not, there’s no number on the table and I’m not negotiating against myself. And then the third thing is just, you know, for those of you who have asked me what I need and what our caucus needs in terms of, you know, moving forward, I have consistently said that we need a vote in the Senate because I want to make sure that there are no delays, that there are no mix-ups, no mixed understandings about what the deal is. And so that’s what I’ve been saying. I am open to hearing what other options there are for that, but I am very concerned about legislative language, holding things up, vote-a-rama changing the deal, and those are the things that have to be addressed along with the content. So it’s both the content and process, and we’re working through all of that now and I feel positive. I mean, I really believe we’re still going to deliver on both of these things, the entirety of the President’s agenda to his desk."
