House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is still fuming over the rank-and-file Democrat opposition, which forced her to ax the coronavirus aid in the spending bill last week.
Between the House Republicans and the vulnerable members of her party, Pelosi has faced a lot of opposition when she tries to pass large spending bills. Punchbowl News on Wednesday noted that Pelosi is still fuming over forcefully having to ax the $15 billion in coronavirus aid from the $1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill after a revolt from the rank-and-file members.
Punchbowl said that according to sources familiar with the leadership meeting Tuesday night, Pelosi railed the Democrat opposition she faced last week:
Pelosi often refers back to her time as a senior member of the Appropriations Committee. She noted during the meeting that rank-and-file members rebelling against a deal cut by Congress’ “Four Corners” – the chair and ranking members of the House and Senate Appropriations panels – used to be unthinkable. Now, Democratic leaders are struggling to find a way to move a standalone Covid funding bill in the face of Republican opposition, as well as unease among Frontliners.
The report also noted that multiple Democrat “insiders” do not believe there is a way for the party leadership to pass the stand-alone bill.
When asked about a potential vote on the coronavirus funding bill this week, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) also blamed the Republican instead of his party.
“We’re talking about it, yes, if we can. We need to get a pay-for that everyone feels comfortable with, because Republicans want a pay-for. And that’s fine. That’s what we’re talking about,” Hoyer told Punchbowl, not wholly committing to a time.
“I’d like to get it done. I don’t think we have to get it done. The sooner we get it done, the better, I think, because the sooner resources can get deployed,” he added.
However, last week, despite her party’s opposition, Pelosi also tried to blame the Republicans for resisting.
“It is heartbreaking to remove the COVID funding, and we must continue to fight for urgently needed COVID assistance, but unfortunately that will not be included in this bill,” the Democrat said.
“Because of Republican insistence — and the resistance by a number of our Members to making those offsets — we will go back to the Rules Committee to remove COVID funding to meet the needs of America’s families,” Pelosi continued.
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.