House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested Wednesday that Democrats need to agree among themselves on the text of a major budget bill before the House can vote on a bipartisan infrastructure bill.
Her comments appeared to raise the bar for an infrastructure bill to move forward, making it far less likely a vote will occur on Thursday as planned.
In response to a question about the progressive threat, Pelosi implied there does need to be an agreement on "Legislative language" for the budget bill for the infrastructure vote to occur.
Party leaders have said they would pass the infrastructure bill in tandem with the budget, but in the past week Pelosi's commitment seemed to waver, and progressives have insisted they would tank the infrastructure bill if the vote happened.
Asked Wednesday if she was specifically saying there had to be an agreement on budget bill text before the infrastructure vote, Pelosi said she wanted the two things done "Simultaneously."
Pelosi said her aim remains to pass the infrastructure bill on Thursday, but also mentioned that she has the authority to delay the vote.
Senate Budget Committee Chair Bernie Sanders told reporters that the House should delay its infrastructure vote if the budget bill's not done by tomorrow.
