Sanders says infrastructure bill ‘must be defeated’ and calls efforts to cut last-minute deal ‘absurd’
President Biden has signed the House-passed stopgap funding bill to avert a shutdown and extend government funding through Dec. 3, according to the White House.
The bill passed the Senate earlier today with a bipartisan vote.
“Tonight, I signed into law the continuing resolution to fund the government through early December,” Biden said in a statement. “I want to thank both houses of Congress—especially Senators Leahy and Shelby and Representatives DeLauro and Granger—for this bipartisan agreement, and for avoiding a government shutdown as we have seen so often in the past.”
“It meets critical and urgent needs of the nation, including disaster relief for both red and blue states hit hard by Hurricane Ida and other devastating natural disasters, and funding to help us resettle Afghan allies in the United States following the end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan. This funding will also keep up our fight against COVID-19 and—on this International Recovery Day—it will continue our battle against the opioid crisis,” the President said.
Though there remains more to do, Biden said, “the passage of this bill reminds us that bipartisan work is possible and it gives us time to pass longer-term funding to keep our government running and delivering for the American people.”
Back on Capitol Hill, different factions of his party are still negotiating over key parts of his domestic agenda, including his bipartisan infrastructure bill.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is scrambling to build support for the roughly $1 trillion infrastructure bill, personally calling Democrats and talking to members on the House floor as progressives threaten to tank it.
Pelosi told reporters she is closer to bringing moderates and progressives together as she works to secure enough votes to pass the Senate-passed bill, which would spend hundreds of billions of dollars upgrading roads, bridges, transit, rail, broadband, airports, ports and waterways.
A source familiar with the whip operation of the House Progressive Caucus tells CNN that the group just completed a status check with their members and their number of “no” votes remains “solid.”
CNN’s Melanie Zanona, Daniella Diaz, Alex Rogers and Annie Grayer contributed reporting to this post.
