House Democrats will cut August recess short to vote on $3.5 trillion budget
The House will cut its traditional August recess short to vote on a $3.5 trillion budget framework the Senate is poised to pass this week.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told lawmakers in a memo Tuesday they must return the week of Aug. 23, nearly a month earlier than planned, to “consider that budget resolution” the Senate debated late Tuesday. The House was initially scheduled to return Sept. 20.
Hoyer, of Maryland, said the House would also consider a voting rights act named after the late Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat. The legislation restores parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that were struck down by the Supreme Court in 2013.
The Senate is poised to pass a $3.5 trillion budget resolution that would pay for a long list of social welfare programs, including expanded Medicare benefits, free preschool, free community college, and extended child tax credits, among other provisions.
When passed, the resolution will head to the House alongside a $1.2 trillion infrastructure measure that passed Tuesday in the Senate with bipartisan support.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said the House would not vote on the infrastructure package until the Senate passes the budget resolution.
Liberal lawmakers in the House Democratic caucus have complained the Senate’s dual measures fall short and must be expanded, but doing so would require the Senate to reconsider the bills a second time.
Pelosi will have to convince Democrats to approve both Senate bills without any changes to ensure the measures have the best chance of making it to President Joe Biden’s desk for approval.
Democrats in the House control a very narrow majority and can afford to lose only three votes. No House Republicans are expected to vote for the $3.5 trillion measure.