A vote on the Build Back Better Act is expected Thursday.

Ben Burke Producer

House passes Build Back Better Act after vote was delayed for hours

Nov 18, 2021

Ben Burke Producer

By Ben Burke (Producer)

Update (11/19/21): After an 8 1/2 filibuster from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) pushed the vote on President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Act back from Thursday night, the House passed the bill Friday morning. The final vote tally was 220-213, a nearly party line vote. The video above shows clips from the vote, as well a news conference from House Democratic leaders after the vote.

“We have a Build Back Better bill that is historic, transformative and larger than anything we have ever done before.” Rep. Pelosi said on the House floor. “If you are a parent, a senior, a child, a worker, if you are an American, this bill is for you.”

Rep. McCarthy used his time to rail on the Biden administration for things like inflation, China’s rise in influence on a global stage, and the situation at the border.

“Millions of Americans are struggling with higher energy costs, higher grocery prices and higher crime,” McCarthy said. “This isn’t politics, as the Democrats claim, this is real life in America today under one party rule in one year.”

The bill now heads to the Senate, where cost cutting measures may still be needed in order to please centrist Democrats like Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ). The Senate hopes to vote on the bill by the end of the year.

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Original Story (11/18/21): Just under two weeks after the House agreed to table a vote on President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Act, SAN Political Producer Annie Andersen reports a vote on the act is expected to happen Thursday night. Debate on the act got underway Thursday.

“We’re ready for the passage of Build Back Better,” House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said at a news conference Thursday.

The vote had been tabled after centrist Democrats refused to support it until the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office conducted a cost estimate on the bill. CBO completed that cost estimate Thursday afternoon.

“This afternoon, we will publish estimates for the remaining titles: title XIII, Committee on Ways and Means; and title VI, Committee on the Judiciary,” the CBO said in a blog post.

The CBO said enacting Title VI of the Build Back Better Act “would result in a net increase in the unified deficit totaling $115.1 billion over the 2022-2031 period”. However, enacting Title XIII “would result in a net decrease in the unified deficit totaling $797.7 billion over the 2022-2031 period.”

The CBO’s full cost estimate was expected to show a modestly higher price tag and deficits of perhaps $200 billion over the coming decade. Early signs were that those differences were unlikely to derail the legislation.

“Each of these investments on its own will make an extraordinary impact on the lives of American families,” House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) said. Rep. Yarmuth noted savings would come from higher levies on the rich and corporations.

Meanwhile Republicans have maintained that the Build Back Better Act would damage an economy already racked by inflation, give tax breaks to some wealthy taxpayers and make government bigger and more intrusive. The Budget Committee’s top Republican, Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) said the bill “Bankrupts the economy, benefits the wealthy, and it builds the Washington machine.”

With uniform Republican opposition, Democrats can lose no more than three votes for the Build Back Better Act to prevail in the House.

Tags: Joe Biden

Rep. Katherine Clark, (D) Massachusetts presiding over vote: “(Vote on) passage of the bill. Those in favor, please say, aye. Those opposed, please say, no. The aye’s have it.”

Representative: “Madam Speaker on that, I ask for the yea’s and nay’s.”

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House: “On this vote the yeas are 220, the nays are 213. The Build Back Better bill is passed.”

“Good morning, everyone, and a good morning, it is. Today we have the honor of participating in passing legislation for the people to build back better, as I always say, with women, for the children. This occasion would not have been possible without the vision of our great president, President Biden. He has said that the infrastructure bill was very, very important and we agree. But it was not the sum total of his vision for how we do build and building back better meant building back with many more people participating.”

Rep. Steny Hoyer, Majority Leader: “It’s a big win for the people. For the average working men and women of America, for those who struggle every day and hope that somebody is on their side, somebody is listening to their pain and their struggle and their challenge. This bill is an answer. This bill will make a difference in their lives. That’s why this bill is so historic, not for next year, the year after, but for decades to come.”

Rep. Katherine Clark, Assistant Speaker of the House: “We are saying to the American family, we see you. We understand those issues around your kitchen table, and we are going to send help to you, whether it’s through expanded child care, universal pre-K that we haven’t been able to pass since the Nixon administration.”

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House: “This bill is monumental. It’s historic. It’s transformative. It’s bigger than anything we’ve ever done. We have so much agreement within the bill should there be some disagreement. And by and large, we had the bill scrubbed so that we are technically, shall we say, eligible for the 51 votes in the Senate. That’s what that was about. And then whatever comes out of the Senate, we’ll be working together with them so that we have agreement when it comes back to the House. I have absolutely no doubt the biggest hurdle was to get the bill there. The biggest challenge was to meet the vision of President Biden.”

Rep. Jim Clyburn, (D) South Carolina: “We think we got a good bill. They think they can make it better and let them go at it. And they may make it better. And we will accept better. So, I don’t think that’s anything for us to be all that concerned about. We’ve done what we think we can do. The Senate will do what it thinks it can do and we’ll come together on behalf of the American people and try to have a coordinated approach as we go off into the future and I don’t fear.”

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House: “The House does not just write any bill that they think the Senate will pass. We find our common ground, but we have our own, shall we say, personality about things. And then we will reconcile whatever changes are needed as as we ever strive to build back better. But it’s a really cause for celebration for us now, and we’re not getting bogged down in long speeches or people’s careers or what happens if this doesn’t happen. What we’re talking about is what has happened, and it’s a glorious, glorious, historic, transformative piece of legislation for the people, for women, for the children.”