“If the Senate passes a CR, we have to keep the government open,” Pelosi told The Hill, referring to a continuing resolution — a stopgap funding measure to avoid a shutdown. Pelosi may not have to deal with such a situation. Democrats need 10 Republican senators to support a CR to pass the Senate, and Republicans have voiced complaints about the licensing reform issue at the heart of Manchin’s deal with President Biden, Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Charles Sumer (DN.Y.). It is entirely possible that the Senate will end up sending a “clean” resolution to the House despite the promise to Manchin. “Let’s see what the Senate does,” Pelosi told The Hill. At issue is a deal cut in July that gives centrist Manchin a vote on legislation designed to fast-track energy infrastructure projects. The deal — which won Manchin’s support for a much larger health and climate bill passed last month — dictated that a vote be held before Oct. 1. But Pelosi noted Wednesday that the legislative vehicle was never specified.
“We had agreed to have a vote, yes,” he said, adding that “we never agreed on how” that vote would go down. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) caused some confusion Wednesday when he said in no uncertain terms that no House Democrats, including Pelosi, endorsed the deal. “The President said she was not part of this deal. I was not part of that deal. Our committees were not part of this agreement,” Hoyer said during a press conference. “I am not criticizing the agreement. I have questions about it, concerns about it. But having said that, that’s not our deal.” The contradictory statements left many Democrats scratching their heads — and seeking more clarity from leadership as the party tries to get on the same page and keep the government running after Oct. 1. “I can’t understand any of this,” said Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), a liberal who opposes the permissive reforms. “Many of us really don’t know what happened. And that adds to the uncertainty many of us feel. What happened here? What exactly are we expected to do? And where do all these moving parts fit? “This is a very dynamic situation.” As the House awaits notification from the Senate, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the lower chamber’s top floor owner, said Wednesday she opposes the idea of ​​expediting energy projects. But he also suggested that Democrats may have to swallow some version of allowing reform to prevent a shutdown. “I don’t support that part,” he said. “But there’s also the issue of where we’re going in terms of keeping the government open.” The fate of Manchin’s proposed changes to the environmental review process is uncertain in the upper chamber, with at least some Republicans appearing hostile to it. In the House, there is significant opposition on the Democratic side from progressives who argue it could accelerate fossil fuel projects that cause pollution and global warming. Nearly 80 members signed a letter opposing the licensing reform and calling for it to be excluded from the state funding measure or any other legislation that must pass. In a written statement earlier this week, opposition leader Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) warned that insisting on including the reforms in the CR could lead to a government shutdown. “Give us a clean CR and let these dirty licensing provisions stand on their own for congressional scrutiny. Now is not the time to roll the dice on a government shutdown,” he told The Hill. If the Democratic leadership can’t get enough support within their own party, House Republicans are one place they could go for potential votes to fund the government. Republicans have long advocated changes to the permitting process, arguing that it is currently too time-consuming and holds up important infrastructure. But Pelosi is generally loathe to get GOP votes to pass measures to fund the government, and Republicans in that case may have zero interest in helping out. Additional uncertainty comes from the fact that there is no legislative text outlining exactly what Manchin’s reforms would look like, and Manchin’s office has released only a broad summary. “If they send us something, we’ll take a look. But they have to put 60 votes on something to send it,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar (Calif.), the fifth-ranking House Democrat. “So I don’t have to get excited about it now when I don’t have legislative language and they don’t know if they have votes.” That summary says the deal would speed up the timeline for environmental reviews required before an energy project can be approved, limit states’ ability to block projects that cross their waters and make the president prioritize a “balanced” list energy projects. . It would also require completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which would carry natural gas from West Virginia to Virginia, according to the summary. Portrait of the late Rep. Elijah Cummings Revealed on Capitol Hill Jan. 6, Committee Members Report Progress in Trump-Secret Service Probe The issue has put the Democratic leadership in a difficult position — caught between Manchin, with whom they may have to work in the future, and a large portion of their party. About two weeks before government funding ends, all sides of the debate say they hope a resolution will emerge to avert a shutdown. “It’s too early to make any definitive statements,” Huffman said. “I’m watching, I’m engaged, and I’m still hoping that this doesn’t come down to some terribly divisive ultimatum.”