Indivisibles,

Here’s the deal. Later today or early tomorrow, the Senate will take a
final vote on the long-awaited bipartisan infrastructure bill.

This has frankly been a long, messy, complicated process, and there are a
lot of moving pieces, so I want to break down what’s happening.

For the last several months, Congress has been working towards the passage
of two related pieces of legislation: a Bipartisan Infrastructure
Framework (BIF) and a bigger, party-line reconciliation package (building
off Biden’s Build Back Better plan). The second package is very, very
important, because it’s the vehicle where Democrats plan to put huge parts
of their governing agenda -- everything from crucial climate change
provisions to a pathway to citizenship to paid leave and child care to
Medicare expansion.

The Biden team’s basic idea is: We’ll reach an agreement with Republicans
on the things they can agree on (roads and bridges) and then we’ll pass
everything else via reconciliation, which doesn’t require any Republican
votes.

Now, there were always a couple of different problems with this plan.

The first problem is substantive: Reconciliation is a limited tool. It can
only be used for legislation that is related to the federal budget. That
means that really crucial stuff (like, for example, VOTING RIGHTS) can’t
pass via reconciliation.

The second problem is strategic: Republicans aren’t agreeing to this BIF
package because they just love roads and bridges. Mitch McConnell doesn’t
sign off on a deal like this out of the goodness of his heart. He’s not
trying to pass legislation; he’s trying to win over Kyrsten Sinema and Joe
Manchin by giving them a bipartisan victory that they can point to as
proof that bipartisanship “works” and trying to deflate moderate
Democrats’ appetite for more spending before they get to most of the
critical progressive investments.

In short: McConnell is giving Republicans the green light to accept this
deal because he thinks it makes Sinema and Manchin less likely to support
an ambitious reconciliation package or rules reform. Meanwhile, Biden and
Democratic leadership are trying to move this deal because they think it
makes Sinema and Manchin more likely to support an ambitious
reconciliation package.

These two theories cannot both be true. Someone is going to get screwed
here.

That’s why what happens next is so crucial.

After passing the Senate, the BIF goes to the House. And our friends in
the Congressional Progressive Caucus have made clear that they will not be
voting for the BIF unless it’s accompanied by a bold reconciliation bill.
That means the path to passing the BIF depends on also passing our
progressive priorities through reconciliation.

This is very, very important: House Progressives, if they hold together,
can demand these two bills stay linked. That’s the power of progressive
organizing.

What does that bold bill look like? Well, we can look to the Senate Budget
Resolution, which just came out today, to see where we’ll start. Due to
some pretty incredible organizing, every single one of [ [link removed] ]the priorities
the CPC outlined back in April is in the package as of right now --
expanding Medicare, lowering drug prices, major investments in addressing
climate change, a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented
immigrants, paid leave, and big investments in affordable housing and
child care.

The fight is far from over. It’ll be important to continue pushing to
ensure each of these are funded for success, rather than slashed by
penny-pinching conservative Democrats.

But the point is, none of this would have happened without progressive
champions organizing in the Senate and House. And it’s crucial that we
back them up (check out [ [link removed] ]this August recess resource for more on how to
do that). The bottom line is: a bipartisan infrastructure package is
woefully insufficient on its own. We elected Democrats to deliver on so
much more, and we need to see them do it.

In solidarity,
Leah Greenberg
Co-Executive Director, Indivisible

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