House narrowly passes $3.5 trillion budget blueprint, paving the way to enact Biden’s expansive agenda.
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The plan allows Democrats to start work on a wide-ranging reconciliation package. Moderates agreed to support it only after exacting a promise for a vote on the $1 trillion infrastructure bill.
Approval of the budget was a milestone in Democrats’ drive to enact their top priorities — including huge investments in education, child care, health care and paid leave, and tax increases on wealthy people and corporations — over Republican opposition.
But it came only after Democratic leaders quelled an internal revolt among moderates, who had balked at passing the plan before the House acted on a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package. As the White House mounted a pressure campaign to win their backing, Speaker Nancy Pelosi engineered a plan to tie both measures together with one vote, allowing approval of the budget blueprint with a vote on a measure committing the House to taking up the infrastructure bill by Sept. 27.
The vote was 220-212, along party lines, to advance the budget plan and allow for future votes on both the infrastructure bill and on a voting rights measure that was on track to pass later Tuesday.
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