The Democrats Who Might Block Biden’s Infrastructure Plan

<p>The first year of a Congress is usually the best time for a president to put forward any sort of ambitious policy. For President Biden, whose control of Congress is fragile, the urgency is particularly intense.</p><p>But now members of his own party are threatening to block one big part of his agenda — his $1 trillion infrastructure plan — in the name of protecting an even bigger part.</p><p>We speak to Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington State, the chairwoman of the  Progressive Caucus, about why she is willing to vote no on the infrastructure bill.</p><p>Guest: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/emily-cochrane">Emily Cochrane</a>, a correspondent covering Congress for The New York Times; and Representative Pramila Jayapal, the chairwoman of the Progressive Caucus.  </p><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/signup/NTTD?smid=pc-thedaily">Sign up here</a> to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/the-daily?module=inline">subscribe to our newsletter</a>. </p><p>Background reading: </p><ul><li>Democrats prepared legislation on Wednesday to avert a government shutdown, but they <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/29/us/politics/debt-limit-spending-bill.html?smid=pc-thedaily">were desperately trying to salvage President Biden’s domestic agenda</a> as conservative-leaning holdouts dug in against an ambitious $3.5 trillion bill that carries many of the party’s top priorities.</li></ul><p>For more information on today’s episode, visit <a href="http://nytimes.com/thedaily?smid=pc-thedaily">nytimes.com/thedaily</a>. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. </p>