BBC, NYTimes etc.

POLITICO Playbook: How Biden and Pelosi saved BIF

By RYAN LIZZA and EUGENE DANIELS 11/06/2021 11:18 AM EDT

[....] It was the same process issue that has bedeviled Democrats all year: Progressives refused to vote for the bipartisan infrastructure bill (BIF), the prized piece of legislation for moderates, unless it was attached to the larger Build Back Better reconciliation bill (BBB), the crown jewel of progressive policy-making.

The standoff twice humiliated Pelosi and Biden when the president and the speaker tried and failed to pass BIF in September and October. The deadlock dragged down Biden’s poll numbers and may have helped cost TERRY MCAULIFFE the governorship of Virginia.

So instead of relaxing at the beach, Biden set up a war room in the White House. He gathered Vice President KAMALA HARRIS and his top policy and legislative aides in the second floor residence and spent the night calling House members.

On the Hill, Speaker NANCY PELOSI tried to downplay the disarray. “Welcome to my world,” she told reporters. “This is the Democratic Party.” In the old days, she suggested, a deal between warring factions — like the ones led by Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-Wash.) and moderate leader JOSH GOTTHEIMER (D-N.J.) — all got worked out behind the scenes. Now, she lamented, it played out “on 24/7 platforms where there are opinions going out, characterizations going out before anybody even knew what was going on.”

Pelosi and Biden spoke at least four times on Friday as they engineered a deal to unstick the two bills and round up a majority to pass BIF, according to a source familiar with the negotiations.

A compromise began to come together:

— Moderates would issue a statement agreeing to vote for BBB later this month and after they had “fiscal information” from the Congressional Budget Office.

— Pelosi relayed the emerging deal to Biden.

— The White House provided a detailed cost estimate to convince moderates that the plan was fiscally sound and Biden personally called the key House moderates to nail things down.

— Pelosi urged the president to talk to Jayapal and her remaining holdouts in the Congressional Progressive Caucus and make a public statement backing it up.

Biden phoned into a tense CPC meeting with some 50 of its members and, via speakerphone, pleaded with them to endorse the deal. Harris, according to a senior White House official, called progressives and assured them that the agreement — despite the decoupling of the two bills — would clear the way for BBB.

At 9 p.m., Biden put out the kind of clear statement that he had declined to issue the last two times the House considered the infrastructure bill: “I am urging all members to vote for both the rule for consideration of the Build Back Better Act and final passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure bill tonight. I am confident that during the week of November 15, the House will pass the Build Back Better Act.”

Jayapal announced she would back the deal. Progressives had finally given in. “Jayapal couldn’t sustain their obstruction with clear pressure from POTUS and Pelosi,” said one Democratic congressional source with knowledge of the pressure campaign.

Shortly after, she was joined at a presser by Gottheimer. White House chief of staff RON KLAIN approvingly tweeted out a photo of the two, writing simply: “Democrats in array.”

Not quite.

In a final twist, six Democrats — all “Squad” members — defied Pelosi and Biden, and refused to vote yes: JAMAAL BOWMAN (D-N.Y.), CORI BUSH (D-Mo.), ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-N.Y.), ILHAN OMAR (D-Minn.), AYANNA PRESSLEY (D-Mass.) and RASHIDA TLAIB (D-Mich.). (Said AOC, via Intercept’s Ryan Grim: “I’m a no. This is bullshit.”)

All eyes turned to moderate Republicans, who had been warned by their leadership not to provide the margin of victory for BIF. The far left had bucked Pelosi, and now she and Biden needed a handful of Republicans to buck House Minority Leader KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-Calif.).

In the end, these 13 Republicans, pressured from the outside by the building trades unions, came forward to rescue BIF and give Biden the biggest win of his presidency: DON BACON (R-Neb.), BRIAN FITZPATRICK (R-Penn.), ANDREW GARBARINO (R-N.Y.), ANTHONY GONZALEZ (R-Ohio), JOHN KATKO (R-N.Y.), ADAM KINZINGER (R-Ill.), NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS (R-N.Y.), DAVID MCKINLEY (R-W.Va.), TOM REED (R-N.Y.), CHRIS SMITH (R-N.J.), FRED UPTON (R-Mich.), JEFF VAN DREW (R-N.J.) and DON YOUNG (R-Alaska).

Shortly before 11:30 p.m., the House passed the infrastructure bill, 228-206.

The rebellion by the Squad turned into a political blessing. Democrats relished the show of bipartisan support. “Obviously, [a] huge blow for McCarthy to have that many vote with us,” said the Democratic congressional source.

Though the events of Friday were best summarized by Rep. MARK POCAN (D-Wis.): “The whole day was a clusterf---, right?”

Or, as first granddaughter NAOMI BIDEN tweeted Friday night after it passed: “I’ll say it: this is a Big F---ing Deal.” [....]