Bernie and Nancy working together so far to ward off the moderates.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/30/biden-reconciliation-package-progressives-501632?cid=apn

Bernie Sanders had an urgent plea at a meeting for Senate Democrats this week: We’re with you on this bipartisan bill, so you better be with us on our $3.5 trillion spending package, attendees said.

Shortly after Wednesday’s caucus meeting, Sanders called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to reinforce her position of holding back the bipartisan deal until a massive domestic bill passes the Senate, according to a source familiar with the call.

During the call with Pelosi, Sanders also relayed his support for her ahead of what is shaping up to be a massive pressure campaign from moderate Democrats and Republicans to drop her position. And on Thursday, Sanders acknowledged the challenges he will face recruiting some members of his own party to support his $3.5 trillion spending vision.

“You’ve got 50 members of the caucus, all of whom have different views and are from different states with different needs. And my job is going to be to try and work it out,” Sanders said.

The episodes underscore the tensions in the Democratic Party as President Joe Biden’s agenda haltingly moves forward. The party will sink or swim together with Democrats’ two-track plan to spend $550 billion in new money on physical infrastructure and then supplement it with their own colossal party-line spending bill on social programs, which will require all 50 Democratic votes to pass the Senate.

But there’s growing worry the complex proposal could quickly turn into a 10-car pileup.

Sanders’ concern is just one piece of the multifaceted internal conflict in the Democratic Party as it rallies around Biden’s $4 trillion domestic spending plan. Once the Senate passes the bipartisan infrastructure plan, a new conflict will immediately replace it: How long should the House wait for its Democratic-only companion bill to arrive before the pressure becomes too much to withstand?

As progressives praise Pelosi and make public threats to sink the bipartisan bill if she buckles, moderates are already urging the speaker to drop her blockade of the upper chamber’s infrastructure deal. It’s a conflict that will test the strength of Democrats’ House and Senate relations, with slim majorities spread out across a large ideological spectrum. And there’s always the danger that the longer the process drags out, the more likely one or both tracks might collapse.

Big bills always surface tensions between chambers of Congress. But given Democrats’ ideological divides and their slim margins, the coordination of these two packages is an unusually delicate and fraught task.

“All [Sinema] did is ensure that we don’t have enough trust unless they both move together,” said senior progressive Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.). “We’ve been very clear and Nancy Pelosi has been very clear on that.”

And though Pelosi insisted again this week the infrastructure bill is going nowhere until she has the complementary $3.5 trillion party-line spending bill in hand, too, centrists are already pressuring the California Democrat to move Biden’s infrastructure deal as quickly as she can.

Democrats in the Problem Solvers Caucus are already growing more vocal in their demands for Pelosi to alter her tactics. And privately, some are discussing whether to band together to block a vote on the budget — stalling the Democratic-only spending bill — until they get what they want.

“I think we made it pretty clear. We want to do the bipartisan bill first,” said Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.), when asked if moderates would be willing to block a budget vote to pressure Democratic leaders on the Senate deal. “Let’s take something home for the summer that people will be proud of.”

Progressives, however, are certain that Pelosi will not break her pledge. And they say even if she tried, the roughly 100-member Congressional Progressive Caucus could sink the Senate measure on the floor.

“We currently do not have the votes to move the bipartisan bill, unless the reconciliation is moving simultaneously. And the speaker obviously knows that,” said Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who serves as chief vote-counter for the left-wing caucus.

Hello Akron!

This Friday at 5PM, we'll have Senator @BernieSanders to launch our canvass!

We'd love for you to join us. We’re only 4 days from election day so we need all hands on deck. Sign up for a shift 👇🏾

Friday:https://t.co/kYbfH5sjdS

Saturday:https://t.co/GkHJiDKSLi

— Nina Turner (@ninaturner) July 30, 2021

“I’ve definitely been in the trenches with my labor sisters and brothers.” — @ninaturner https://t.co/1Q1uGCs7dr

— The Nation (@thenation) July 30, 2021

Most Democrats who go to Congress are generally supportive of labor. But if Turner wins, she says she plans to serve as a fierce advocate for workers and the organizations that represent them—promising as a central premise of her economic and social and racial justice agenda to “strengthen and expand unions.”

“I’ve definitely been in the trenches with my labor sisters and brothers over the decades. I’m excited and proud to enjoy the support of many labor unions,” she told me when we spoke recently. “So yes, I’ll be with the unions, whether its on the floor of the House or marching in the streets. I’ve already been in the streets with labor unions as they have been pushing, not just in my state but all across the country—from postal workers to the Fight for 15 that’s being led by SEIU. I’ve been there side-by-side with these workers, and it is a source of pride for me.”

Right now, Turner is enthusiastic about the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which would make it easier for unions to organize and collectively bargain. “I’m really glad that it passed the House of Representatives,” she says of the PRO Act. “We’ve got to get it through that other chamber, the Senate, which is going to be a herculean task. It shouldn’t be, but it is going to be.” She’s also focused on trade policy, an issue that has often divided Democrats.

On what has long been a “Which side are you on?” issue, Turner’s on the side of the unions that have battled against bad trade deals—such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and permanent normalization of trade with China—that have been backed by presidents and members of Congress from both parties.

“Steel was king or queen in the greater Cleveland area, that industry, and in other parts of the district that I’m running in. For Akron it was rubber. So I come from a state and a district where labor unions and good-paying jobs were a staple. That was how many people made it into the middle class,” she says. “Ohio certainly has been devastated, my district especially, by the loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs because of bad trade policy. You know the notion of the bad trade policies was centered in the 2016 presidential election especially. We have got to recognize that this is an area where we have a lot to do to help working people.