Biden agenda in limbo amid 'intense' reconciliation talks, Dems allegedly holding infrastructure 'hostage'

President Biden's two major economic agenda items hang in the balance this week as Democrats continue "intense discussions" on their $3.5 trillion spending plan and some Republicans are warning that their support for the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill could evaporate Democrats ‘linked’ it with reconciliation.

"We've worked for quite some time to negotiate a bipartisan infrastructure bill which did not include any of this additional spending. We've got the president to commit to it. We've got the Senate to pass it," Hogan said. "And and then the House is now saying if we can't jam through our three-and-a-half trillion dollars of other stuff that we took out of this compromise bill, that they're not going to do it."

The Senate passed the infrastructure bill last month with much fanfare. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and progressives said for weeks that they won't vote for it without guarantees that Congress will pass a reconciliation bill to their liking. 

After a clash with moderates who wanted a guarantee of a vote on the infrastructure bill and were threatening to tank the budget resolution that allows Democrats to bypass the Senate filibuster, Pelosi set a tentative date for a vote on infrastructure for September 27.