Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called on Democrats to reach a deal on a massive spending and infrastructure package “in days, not weeks,” setting what could be an impossible deadline for a gridlocked party that has been unable to settle differences on the cost and scope of the plan.
The New York Democrat wrote to senators in his caucus Monday morning, warning them there is little time to write a historically large social welfare spending package and clear it with the parliamentarian in time to meet an Oct. 31 deadline.
“It is crucial that the House, Senate and President come to a final agreement on the details of the Build Back Better Act as soon as possible, preferably within a matter of days, not weeks,” Schumer wrote Monday.
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Schumer also warned Democrats that the Senate must act to raise the nation’s borrowing limit by the end of this week or else the chamber could remain in session over the weekend and into the planned recess next week. Republicans are refusing to provide the 10 votes needed for Democrats to pass a debt limit increase by an Oct. 18 deadline.
Democrats, meanwhile, are struggling to save President Joe Biden’s two-part economic agenda.
The package hit a major roadblock on Friday, when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi postponed plans to vote on a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package that makes up half of Biden’s economic agenda.
Progressive House Democrats said they won’t vote for the infrastructure package until they reach a deal with Senate Democrats on a social welfare spending bill that they hope will be as much as $3.5 trillion. Centrists in the Senate say that price tag is far too high.
Biden told House Democrats in a closed-door meeting in the Capitol Friday that they would have to lower the cost of the social welfare spending bill to $2 trillion in order to reach a compromise with party centrists, including Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
Schumer, in his memo to Democrats Monday, did not set a price limit, but he told lawmakers, “Not every member will get everything he or she wanted. But at the end of the day, we will pass legislation that will dramatically improve the lives of the American people.”
Schumer said he believes Congress can pass the infrastructure and social welfare package in October, but he added that with slim majorities in the House and Senate and a new Democratic president, “doing really big things all at once is really, really hard.”
Schumer’s memo didn’t explain how Democrats will try to raise the debt limit over GOP opposition.
Democrats can raise it unilaterally using a budgetary tactic called reconciliation, but party leaders have warned it would not be possible to raise it in time for the Oct. 18 deadline.
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House Democrats passed a debt limit increase last week, sending it to the Senate.
Schumer said the Senate will remain in session until lawmakers in the upper chamber vote to raise the debt ceiling.
“We do not have the luxury of waiting until Oct. 18, as it is our responsibility to re-assure the world that the United States meets our obligations in a timely fashion and that the full faith and credit of the United States should never be in question,” he wrote.
