The House of Representatives will pass Democrats’ massive domestic spending package this week, National Economic Council Director Brian Deese predicted Sunday.
“We are confident that Speaker Pelosi is going to bring it up and that it will pass this week. We will move forward to the next process and moving it to the Senate,” he toll CNN’s “State of the Union.”
For months, Democrats have struggled to pass President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda. Earlier this month, Congress passed a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure package. Now the focus is on legislation to provide universal preschool, fight climate change, invest in worker training and much more — with a hefty price tag of about $1.75 trillion.
The White House initially envisioned $3.5 trillion in spending for the “Build Back Better Act,” known as BBB for short, but has repeatedly cut programs in a bid to win over moderate Senate Democrats. Republicans are unanimously opposed.
Deese tied passage of the legislation to inflation, which has been rising at a rate not seen in more than three decades.
“Far from adding to inflation concerns, this bill will do the opposite,” he told ABC’s “This Week.”
“Every serious economist that has looked at this proposal has said that it will not add to long term inflationary pressure,” he added.
Consideration of the Build Back Better Act is on House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s, D-Md., schedule for the coming week, The Hill noted.
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., previously indicated the Senate could take up the legislation this week, too.
But in a letter sent Sunday to colleagues, he said it will likely weigh a key defense spending bill instead.
“Timing of consideration of the BBBA in the Senate will largely depend on when the House sends us the bill,” he wrote.
Key senators previously said they’d wait for an official analysis of the bill’s costs before committing to passing it.
That means lawmakers could be working into late December to pass the heart of the president’s domestic agenda.
“On a bill of this magnitude, this process takes time and patience,” Schumer wrote colleagues.
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