Congress is attempting some heavy lifting
There's plenty of talk about inflation and energy this week but expect it to quickly shift to politics and the outlook for major legislation in the US.
In a weekend letter, House majority leader Nancy Pelosi said they will attempt to pass the reconciliation bill, the infrastructure bill and the government funding bill -- all before Friday.
There's a caucus meeting today at 5:30 pm ET and that will give us an idea of whether any of this can happen. I haven't seen anything to show the price tag of the $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill come down and that's going to be essential for Manchin and Sinema. Yet if they bring it down too far, then House progressives will hold the reconciliation bill hostage.
Here's the state of play from Jake Sherman from Punch Bowl:
Reconciliation. everyone we talk to says that a bill this week is going to be tough. that said, don't doubt Pelosi etc. but people involved in the talks say better bet that reconciliation framework will be done this week, vote a bit later.
Infra is all dependent on progress on reconciliation. Dems hoping that they can get close enough on the latter to convince progressives to go on the former. very sure from a far thing here though.
I just can't see infrastructure getting anywhere this fast, it seems there hasn't even been a full debate on the details amongst Democrats but politics are tough to predict.
