Democrats Scrounge for Votes to Pass $3.5 Trillion Budget Plan

The officials sought to allay the moderates’ fears that Mr. Biden would sign the larger spending bill without the infrastructure bill, according to a person familiar with the calls; they also voiced support for Ms. Pelosi’s push to pass both bills by Oct. 1. Some officials have stressed benefits of the larger bill, including proposals to reduce the cost of prescription drugs.

Ms. Pelosi and her top deputies, backed by dozens of progressive lawmakers, remain equally adamant that the infrastructure vote will happen only after the Senate approves the budget package. In a series of open letters to members over the past week, senior Democrats framed a vote in support of the budget blueprint as a chance to shape key legislation and ensure passage of party priorities.

“Ensuring a bicameral reconciliation process, with true input from the House prior to the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure legislation, is essential to advancing critical Democratic priorities on infrastructure and so much more,” wrote Representative Peter A. DeFazio of Oregon, the chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and a scathing critic of the bipartisan deal.

Progressive groups have also pushed ads targeting the nine Democrats as obstructing the Biden administration’s agenda. No Labels, a centrist political organization, called the group “the unbreakable nine” in a dramatic montage comparing them to figures like Abraham Lincoln and a fictional senator from the film “Bulworth,” in which a suicidal politician decides to tell the truth.

While some Republicans are expected to support the bipartisan infrastructure bill, they are adamantly opposed to the budget blueprint, citing concerns about its size, proposed tax increases and the possibility that increased spending will worsen inflation.

“Don’t be surprised, when you write a bill that you know no Republican will vote for it, that none do,” Representative Tom Cole, Republican of Oklahoma, said at a hearing on Monday. “Frankly, that’s why you’ve linked the infrastructure bill and this bill together, because you’re beating your own members into submission.”

Referring to the $1 trillion infrastructure bill, he added: “If you put it on the floor, it would pass immediately, but you’ve chosen to use it as a weapon against your own members.”