The Day
Tony Romm, Marianna Sotomayor, Jacqueline Alemany and Seung Min Kim
The clock is ticking on House Democrats as they barrel toward an uncertain, scheduled vote Thursday on a $1 trillion bill to improve the nation's infrastructure - a top priority of President Joe Biden that some in his party are still threatening to oppose.
The drama and diplomacy only have intensified over the past 24 hours, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., scrambles to keep her fractious, narrow majority intact and send the first of two major economic initiatives to Biden's desk. But her last-minute push - along with the president's own flurry of outreach - appears to have made little difference in sparing their shared agenda from the risk of a high-profile collapse.
Democrats generally support the infrastructure package, which proposes major new investments in the country's aging roads, bridges, pipes, ports and internet connections. But the bill has become a critical political bargaining chip for liberal-leaning lawmakers, who have threatened to scuttle it in order to preserve the breadth of a second, roughly $3.5 trillion economic package.
