House delays infrastructure vote as negotiations among Democrats stall

Washington — The House delayed its planned vote on a bipartisan infrastructure bill late Thursday night, while negotiations continued over another measure — a larger social safety net — but failed to result in an agreement. 

As Speaker Nancy Pelosi left the Capitol in the early hours of Friday morning, she continued to say there would be a vote "today." She also told reporters that progressives and moderates, who have been arguing about the cost of the social safety net spending, are "not trillions of dollars apart."

The House had intended to take up the $1.2 trillion infrastructure measure Thursday, but a majority of progressives threatened to vote against the legislation without a deal on the larger $3.5 trillion package, and they may have enough votes in the narrowly divided House to tank the bill. The infrastructure bill, known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework, would make the biggest investment in the nation's roads, bridges, railways and ports in decades, and it also contains some funds for modern infrastructure, like electric vehicle charging stations and broadband.