The U.S. House of Representatives planned to vote on Friday on President Joe Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure package and to advance but not hold a final vote on a sweeping social-policy bill amid lingering questions over its cost, Democratic leaders said.
The latest plan of action, announced by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her No. 2, Representative Steny Hoyer, amounted to a partial setback for Democrats who have been eager to pass both pieces of legislation, which together account for the bulk of Biden’s domestic agenda.
Pelosi had planned to hold a vote on both bills on Friday, but action ground to a halt after centrist Democrats said they wanted to see a nonpartisan cost estimate for the social-policy and climate-change bill. That estimate, prepared by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), could take weeks to complete.
After several hours of closed-door meetings, Pelosi said the House would hold a final vote on the infrastructure bill and a procedural vote on the social-policy bill, with no timetable for a final vote.
It was not immediately clear whether progressive Democrats – who have insisted that the two bills move in unison – would back the idea.
The Democratic leadership of Congress wanted to close out a week in which the party suffered embarrassing losses in state elections with a vote on that sweeping legislation https://www.reuters.com/business/cop/whats-bidens-175-trillion-build-back-better-package-2021-11-05 and the other, approved in a bipartisan Senate vote in August, to invest $1 trillion in rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure https://www.reuters.com/world/us/roads-bridges-airports-details-bidens-1-trillion-infrastructure-bill-2021-11-05.
Weeks of bickering between moderate and progressive Democrats have held up the bills. Biden on Friday for the first time publicly called on the House to vote on the bills today.
“I’m asking every House member – member of the House of Representatives – to vote ‘yes’ on both these bills right now,” the Democratic president said.
The two pieces of legislation include the biggest upgrade of America’s roads, bridges and airports in a generation and the largest expansion of social programs since the 1960s.
An affirmative vote would bolster the credibility of Biden’s pledge to halve U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from 2005 levels by 2030 during the U.N. climate conference https://www.reuters.com/business/cop taking place in Glasgow, Scotland.
The party is eager to show it can move forward on the president’s agenda and fend off Republicans in the 2022 midterm elections, when control of the House and Senate will be on the line.
WAITING FOR CBO
But distrust between the party’s factions remained high. Moderate Representative Jared Golden told reporters his group was waiting to see the CBO report on the bill before voting.
Progressive Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez expressed anger, saying, “Moderates are threatening to tank the bill over the CBO score.”
With razor-thin majorities in Congress and a united Republican opposition, Democrats need unity to pass legislation.
The infrastructure bill, which passed the Senate https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-biden-infrastructure-idTRNIL1N2PH1MA in August with 19 Republican votes, would fund a massive upgrade of America’s roads, bridges, airports, seaports and rail systems, while also expanding broadband internet service.
The “Build Back Better” package includes provisions on child care and preschool, eldercare, healthcare, prescription drug pricing and immigration.
Republicans uniformly oppose that legislation, casting it as a dramatic expansion of government that would hurt businesses.
“This is potentially a very black day for America,” said Republican Representative Glenn Grothman, who characterized the legislation’s child-care and preschool provisions as a “Marxist” effort to have the federal government raise children.
The nonpartisan U.S. Joint Committee on Taxation estimates the social-spending bill would raise $1.48 trillion in new tax revenue over the next decade, short of its $1.75 trillion cost.
Pelosi and other top Democrats say that fails to account for increased tax enforcement and savings from lower prescription drug prices.
(Reporting by David Morgan, Susan Cornwell and Makini Brice, additional reporting by Trevor Hunnitcutt and Alexandra Alper; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Scott Malone and Jonathan Oatis)
WINNIPEG – Police in Winnipeg say one person has died and three more were injured after a pickup truck smashed into a bus shelter on Portage Avenue during the morning commute.
Police say those injured are in stable condition in hospital.
It began after a Ford F150 truck hit a pedestrian and bus shelter on Portage Avenue near Bedson Street before 8 a.m.
Another vehicle, a power pole and a gas station were also damaged before the truck came to a stop.
The crash forced commuters to be rerouted and knocked out power in the area for more than a thousand Manitoba Hydro customers.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
KAMLOOPS, B.C. – A 35-year-old man has been charged with second-degree murder after his mother’s body was found near her Kamloops, B.C., home a year ago.
Mounties say 57-year-old Jo-Anne Donovan was found dead about a week after she had been reported missing.
RCMP says its serious crime unit launched an investigation after the body was found.
Police say they arrested Brandon Donovan on Friday after the BC Prosecution Service approved the charge.
TORONTO – Strength in the base metal and technology sectors helped Canada’s main stock index gain almost 100 points on Friday, while U.S. stock markets climbed to their best week of the year.
“It’s been almost a complete opposite or retracement of what we saw last week,” said Philip Petursson, chief investment strategist at IG Wealth Management.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 297.01 points at 41,393.78. The S&P 500 index was up 30.26 points at 5,626.02, while the Nasdaq composite was up 114.30 points at 17,683.98.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 93.51 points at 23,568.65.
While last week saw a “healthy” pullback on weaker economic data, this week investors appeared to be buying the dip and hoping the central bank “comes to the rescue,” said Petursson.
Next week, the U.S. Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut its key interest rate for the first time in several years after it significantly hiked it to fight inflation.
But the magnitude of that first cut has been the subject of debate, and the market appears split on whether the cut will be a quarter of a percentage point or a larger half-point reduction.
Petursson thinks it’s clear the smaller cut is coming. Economic data recently hasn’t been great, but it hasn’t been that bad either, he said — and inflation may have come down significantly, but it’s not defeated just yet.
“I think they’re going to be very steady,” he said, with one small cut at each of their three decisions scheduled for the rest of 2024, and more into 2025.
“I don’t think there’s a sense of urgency on the part of the Fed that they have to do something immediately.
A larger cut could also send the wrong message to the markets, added Petursson: that the Fed made a mistake in waiting this long to cut, or that it’s seeing concerning signs in the economy.
It would also be “counter to what they’ve signaled,” he said.
More important than the cut — other than the new tone it sets — will be what Fed chair Jerome Powell has to say, according to Petursson.
“That’s going to be more important than the size of the cut itself,” he said.
In Canada, where the central bank has already cut three times, Petursson expects two more before the year is through.
“Here, the labour situation is worse than what we see in the United States,” he said.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.61 cents US compared with 73.58 cents US on Thursday.
The October crude oil contract was down 32 cents at US$68.65 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was down five cents at US$2.31 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$30.10 at US$2,610.70 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents US$4.24 a pound.
— With files from The Associated Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
