U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) recently said that Democrats won’t support a $974 billion infrastructure compromise that excludes funding to support the nation’s care economy.
Last week, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators hammered out a compromise to Biden’s proposed $1.7 trillion plan that included funding for roads, bridges and energy, but did not include funding for care workers.
“If this (bipartisan plan) is something that can be agreed upon, I don’t know how we can possibly sell it unless we know there is more to come,” Pelosi said during an interview on CNN.
Pelosi said the president had “no intention of abandoning” the rest of his vision and hinted Congress might pass the bipartisan measure if Democrats could push through a second spending measure through reconciliation.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) was among the bipartisan team who worked out the compromise. She said she has been an advocate for home healthcare but believed it could be considered separately.
“We can look at these issues, but they are not infrastructure. And, they should be considered separately and I believe they will be,” Collins told CBS.
The Biden administration’s infrastructure plan called for $400 billion for the care economy and included higher wages for care workers and funding for home-and-community-based services.
