WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden made a public plea to House Democrats on Friday to pass his two ambitious spending bills, telling the small number of remaining holdouts that time is up.
The president has stopped short of calling on his party to implement a specific timeline, preferring in previous pleas to let the House figure out the timing.
But on Friday, Biden appeared to have tired of waiting and told lawmakers to act immediately.
“I'm asking every member of the House of Representatives to vote yes on both these bills right now,” Biden said Friday during remarks on the latest jobs numbers. “Send the infrastructure bill to my desk, send the Build Back Better bill to the Senate. Let's build on incredible economic progress, build on what we've already done because this will be such a boost when it occurs.”
Biden said he would continue making calls throughout the day to push the few remaining holdouts to vote yes as the House appeared ready Friday to vote on both a social safety net bill and an infrastructure package.
Democratic leaders said they were hopeful they had the votes and could get the infrastructure bill to Biden’s desk as early as Friday. Biden had hoped to reach a deal on the bills last week before leaving for a trip to Europe where he wanted to use them to promote America's progress on issues like climate change.
“Let's show the world that America's democracy can deliver and propel our economy forward,” Biden said. “Let's get this done.”
