Biden lands overseas without deal after House delays infrastructure vote

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not called the bipartisan infrastructure bill to a vote even after President Joe Biden delayed a trip to push progressives to back his agenda.

House Democratic leaders have pulled the plug on a vote to the Senate-passed $1.1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill this week, just as President Joe Biden arrives in Rome without a deal in hand, and as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi misses her self-imposed deadline to have a vote on the bill by the end of the month.

"As you know by now, the House will postpone the vote on BIF," Pelosi said in a new Dear Colleague letter late Thursday. "The good news is that most Members who were not prepared for a yes vote today have expressed their commitment to support the BIF."

House progressives, whose votes are needed for passage of Biden's domestic agenda, have insisted they need firm commitment from holdout moderate Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., to the social spending package that the White House proposed on Thursday before they pledge their votes to the Senate-passed infrastructure bill.

The Progressive Caucus late Thursday voted internally to endorse Biden's proposed framework -- but members indicated they are holding the line until the social spending bill is ready for a vote.