The House of Representatives will hold its final debate tonight on President Joe Biden's $1.75 trillion domestic investment bill, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, signaling it could vote on Thursday.
The chamber's Rules Committee completed a procedural debate on the measure to boost the social safety net and fight climate change, as moderates awaited the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office's final accounting of the bill's fiscal impact.
"At the close of debate, all that remains is to take up the vote," Pelosi said in a letter to members, not specifying when a vote on passage could occur.
The legislation would fund expanded social programs, mainly to help children and seniors, and provide $550 billion to battle climate change. If it passes the Democratic-controlled House, it would go to the Senate for consideration, where two moderate Democratic members have threatened to hold it up.
The Congressional Budget Office said it would provide that analysis on Thursday.
Moderate House Democrats have been particularly interested in receiving the CBO "score" of the bill. It is unclear whether any moderates would withhold their support for the sprawling bill if the analysis finds additional tax revenues embedded in the bill would not cover the new spending.
Republicans are expected to oppose the legislation in lock-step following months of attacking it as a wasteful "socialist" agenda that will stoke price inflation.
Meanwhile, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, who also has sounded alarms over inflation, gave his full-throttled support on Thursday for the bill.
"This is as close to a no-brainer as I've seen in decades of public policy analysis," Summers told reporters on a call hosted by the liberal-leaning Center for American Progress.
He warned the legislation might be the last opportunity for some time to expand the IRS' auditing capability and begin collecting billions of dollars of taxes not being paid by mostly high-income Americans.
© 2024 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.