The Archive

In case you missed it, John Bresnahan interviewed Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) as part of Punchbowl News’ new "5 Questions With…" series. Check out the interview below and don’t forgot to subscribe to Punchbowl News for more premium content like this!

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH…REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL

As Democratic-controlled House committees scramble to craft a massive $3.5 trillion reconciliation package covering big chunks of President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda — or attempt to, at least — we’re closely following all the key players in the process.

One of those members to watch is Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Bres interviewed the third-term lawmaker yesterday. You can watch it here, and it’s embedded above.

Jayapal, a fierce advocate for increased spending on social programs — “human infrastructure” — has pushed hard for the biggest reconciliation package that her fellow Democrats will support. Like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Jayapal initially wanted to see a reconciliation package in the $6 trillion to $10 trillion range. The House approved a budget resolution on Tuesday authorizing a $3.5 trillion package. 

Now Jayapal wants all Democrats — progressives and moderates alike — to support that package. Jayapal and other progressives have warned that if moderate Democrats don’t vote for the reconciliation package, then progressives won’t back the $1 trillion bipartisan Senate infrastructure bill favored by moderates. Moderates in the House and Senate have said they will not back a $3.5 trillion package. They want to scale back the bill, so you can see the tension points here. 

We talked about reconciliation, relations between progressives and moderates inside the House Democratic Caucus, and what impact the Biden agenda could have on the 2022 midterms. Here’s some highlights from our interview:

→ On why progressives want to vote on the reconciliation package before taking up the bipartisan Senate infrastructure bill: “[T]he reality is, the totality of the Biden agenda, the Democratic agenda that we ran on and we now have to deliver on, is really contained within the reconciliation bill. So let’s pass that first, and then we’ll make sure we send both bills to the president’s desk to sign.”

→ Jayapal downplayed policy differences between Democratic progressives and moderates, yet she also said it was critical for the party to pull together now: “This very small group of people, my colleagues, that sort of have gotten a lot of attention in the last couple of days, I just want to remind people that this is the Democratic agenda. This is President Biden’s agenda. This is the agenda of the speaker, of the Senate majority leader, and — of course — the vast majority of our caucus who wanted to get a [budget] resolution done and want to pass a three-and-a-half trillion dollar bill that invests in these critical priorities and allows people to wake up in the morning and feel differently about their lives and their livelihoods.” 

→ While some of her colleagues are worried about the prospect of losing the majority in 2022,  Jayapal said it’s imperative for Democrats to come through on what they promised voters: “If we deliver these things, I believe we will hold the House. If we don’t deliver these things, I think we could lose the House.”

Subscribe to Punchbowl News to stay up to date on all the news coming out of Washington and join our growing community!